ShakeMap (Calculated earthquake intensity):

Western Texas earthquake
Intensity calculation for the earthquake in Western Texas (M4.7) on July 21st

View ShakeMap, Epicenter and historical seismicity on interactive map

What happened:

A moderate earthquake has hit Western Texas on Thursday. According to preliminary USGS data the quake reached Magnitude 4.3. It was preceded by several foreshocks, located near the town Whites City in the Permian Basin close to the border to New Mexico. Shaking was felt in a wide area including the towns of Odessa and Carlsbad. Intense hydrocarbon production and injection of waste water has caused a significant uptick of seismicity in this area over the past few years. Today’s quake is one of the strongest in the last months. However, due to the low population density, no earthquake damage is expected.

Current earthquake activity in Texas:

In the past 30 days, 86 earthquakes of magnitude 2.3 or higher were detected in Western Texas (see map section). Therefore, the earthquake activity of the past month has been much higher relative to long-term trends (more than 20% deviation).

Statistic:

No statistics available due to limited number of past earthquakes.

Largest earthquakes in this map section* (Texas and nearby)

Date Magnitude Depth (km)
1995-4-14 5.7 18
2020-3-26 5.0 10
1975-8-1 4.8 5
2021-12-28 4.6 8
1992-1-2 4.6 5
1989-11-29 4.6 13
2011-4-30 4.6 10
2022-3-25 4.6 7
2022-6-1 4.6 6
1990-1-29 4.5 12

*Data: USGS (Magnitude 4 +, since 1960)