mining explosion · reviewed by a seismologist
M 3.5ml
30 km NNE of Ranchester, Wyoming
- When
- Magnitude
- M 3.5 (ml)
- Depth
- 0.0 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Sheridan County, 42 km S
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 47 days ago
This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.
USGS catalogues this as mining explosion, not an earthquake.
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.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
- 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 45.1533, -106.9764. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheridan County, WY | 42 km (26 mi) | N of here | earthquakes near Sheridan County |
| Big Horn County, MT | 51 km (32 mi) | ESE of here | earthquakes near Big Horn County |
| Big Horn County, WY | 106 km (66 mi) | NE of here | earthquakes near Big Horn County |
| Powder River County, MT | 115 km (71 mi) | WSW of here | earthquakes near Powder River County |
| Rosebud County, MT | 116 km (72 mi) | SSW of here | earthquakes near Rosebud County |
| Treasure County, MT | 122 km (76 mi) | S of here | earthquakes near Treasure County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
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.
On USGS
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.