20 km NNE of Upper Lake, California

2016-08-10 02:57 UTC · 14 km deep · released about 650 tons of TNT

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: 2016-08-10 02:57 UTC
Magnitude: M 5.1 (mw)
Depth: 14 km below the surface
Felt: 960 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking: intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert: green
Tsunami: USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest: Lake County, 25 km S
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 256 days ago · we first saw it 256 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 960 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 650 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 260× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 12× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 8.2× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 5.1 about 650 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1,400× 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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 39.3293, -122.8018. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction
Lake County, CA	25 km (16 mi)	N of here	earthquakes near Lake County
Glenn County, CA	46 km (28 mi)	SW of here	earthquakes near Glenn County
Colusa County, CA	51 km (32 mi)	WNW of here	earthquakes near Colusa County
Mendocino County, CA	56 km (35 mi)	ESE of here	earthquakes near Mendocino County
Sonoma County, CA	90 km (56 mi)	N of here	earthquakes near Sonoma County
Sutter County, CA	100 km (62 mi)	WNW of here	earthquakes near Sutter County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1.8 21 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 06:40 UTC
2.1 19 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 06:12 UTC
1.8 21 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 03:26 UTC
1.7 3 km ENE of Willits, California 21:18 UTC
1.8 20 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 05:14 UTC
1.7 19 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 03:32 UTC
1.8 21 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 20:29 UTC
1.8 20 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 18:12 UTC
1.8 20 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 11:41 UTC
1.8 20 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 11:40 UTC
1.9 20 km WSW of Stonyford, California 06:25 UTC
1.6 21 km W of Stonyford, California 06:25 UTC
1.8 21 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 01:03 UTC
1.8 19 km NNE of Upper Lake, California 20:30 UTC
1.9 20 km WSW of Stonyford, California 16:14 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:42 UTC. 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.