QuakeIndex

explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

2 km WSW of Jefferson, Oregon

· -0.4 km deep · released about 47 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Polk County 35 kmBenton County 39 kmMarion County 42 kmLinn County 47 kmYamhill County 63 kmLincoln County 70 kmClackamas County 83 kmLane County 88 kmWashington County 93 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
-0.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Polk County, 35 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 496 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 47 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 320,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 230,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 20× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 47 lb of TNT

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 44.7155, -123.0357. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Polk County, OR 35 km (22 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Polk County
Benton County, OR 39 km (25 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Benton County
Marion County, OR 42 km (26 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Marion County
Linn County, OR 47 km (29 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Linn County
Yamhill County, OR 63 km (39 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Yamhill County
Lincoln County, OR 70 km (43 mi) E of here earthquakes near Lincoln County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.2 13 km SE of Scotts Mills, Oregon
  2. 1.8 2 km ENE of Blodgett, Oregon
  3. 1.8 5 km NW of Lacomb, Oregon
  4. 2.0 2 km SE of Amity, Oregon
  5. 1.5 9 km ESE of Scotts Mills, Oregon
  6. 1.6 5 km NW of Lacomb, Oregon
  7. 1.7 7 km ESE of Amity, Oregon
  8. 2.0 6 km W of Lacomb, Oregon
  9. 1.9 7 km S of Dayton, Oregon
  10. 1.6 4 km NE of Falls City, Oregon
  11. 1.8 8 km W of Falls City, Oregon
  12. 1.7 2 km E of Amity, Oregon
  13. 3.2 5 km SE of Amity, Oregon
  14. 1.6 6 km S of Dayton, Oregon
  15. 1.6 6 km NNW of Philomath, Oregon

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 4.4 on 2022-10-07 — it released about 2,500 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.