September 13, 2023
On September 12, 2023, around 4:01 PM local time, a magnitude 3.28 earthquake occurred near Lemitar and Escondida, NM. There are reports that the earthquake was felt in Lemitar and Socorro. The event was recorded on seismometers operated by the New Mexico Tech Seismological Observatory (NMTSO), which streams real-time data (Figure 1) to the web. Figure 2 shows the location of the event as determined by the NMTSO, about 6 km west of Lemitar and Escondida, NM. The epicenter, at 34.1217041°N, -106.9610596°W, is close to a fault mapped by Richard Chamberlin on the Socorro quadrangle.
The region experiences natural earthquake activity due to the presence of the Socorro magma body. You can also find out more information about this earthquake (LemitarEarthquake_09/12/2023 ) on the USGS website, where you can fill out a “Did you feel it?” report to help scientists understand the ground shaking from earthquakes.
