QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

29km E of Big Pine, CA

· -0.4 km deep · released about 38 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Esmeralda County 79 kmInyo County 80 kmMono County 119 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
Esmeralda County, 79 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1866 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 38 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 5.8 390,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 25× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 38 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 37.1205, -117.9718. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Esmeralda County, NV 79 km (49 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Inyo County, CA 80 km (50 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Mono County, CA 119 km (74 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Mono County
Tulare County, CA 123 km (76 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Tulare County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 53 km S of Silver Peak, Nevada
  2. 1.6 8km N of Big Pine, CA
  3. 1.5 33 km NE of Independence, California
  4. 1.5 California-Nevada border region
  5. 2.9 8km SE of Deep Springs, CA
  6. 2.4 28 km S of Silver Peak, Nevada
  7. 1.9 5km ESE of Deep Springs, CA
  8. 1.5 16km WSW of Deep Springs, CA
  9. 2.6 15km WSW of Deep Springs, CA
  10. 1.7 25 km SSE of Dyer, Nevada
  11. 2.0 10km ESE of Deep Springs, CA
  12. 2.4 1km ENE of Bishop, CA
  13. 1.7 8km ESE of Deep Springs, CA
  14. 3.0 8km ESE of Deep Springs, CA
  15. 1.7 7km ESE of Deep Springs, CA

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 4.8 on 2016-02-16 — it released about 11,000 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.