QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5mwr

5 km NNW of Herington, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 2.7 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Dickinson County 23 kmMorris County 28 kmGeary County 36 kmMarion County 41 kmChase County 57 kmSaline County 60 kmRiley County 67 kmMcPherson County 69 kmWabaunsee County 72 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 3.5 (mwr)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
69 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Dickinson County, 23 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 429 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 69 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× more

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

Where

Epicentre 38.7164, -96.9709. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Dickinson County, KS 23 km (15 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Dickinson County
Morris County, KS 28 km (17 mi) W of here earthquakes near Morris County
Geary County, KS 36 km (23 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Geary County
Marion County, KS 41 km (26 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Marion County
Chase County, KS 57 km (35 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Chase County
Saline County, KS 60 km (37 mi) E of here earthquakes near Saline County

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

8 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.5 5 km SW of Hope, Kansas
  2. 2.6 6 km NW of Ramona, Kansas
  3. 3.7 10 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  4. 2.7 7 km SE of Enterprise, Kansas
  5. 2.6 9 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  6. 2.9 7 km WSW of Gypsum, Kansas
  7. 2.4 5 km NE of Hope, Kansas
  8. 2.6 7 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.3 on 2021-12-08 — it released about 16 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.