QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

21 km E of Potter Valley, California

· 6.3 km deep · released about 7.3 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lake County 29 kmGlenn County 49 kmMendocino County 50 kmColusa County 58 kmSonoma County 92 kmTehama County 102 kmNapa County 105 kmSutter County 107 kmYolo County 112 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
6.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lake County, 29 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3515 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 7.3 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.3 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 39.3522, -122.8723. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lake County, CA 29 km (18 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Lake County
Glenn County, CA 49 km (30 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Mendocino County, CA 50 km (31 mi) E of here earthquakes near Mendocino County
Colusa County, CA 58 km (36 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Sonoma County, CA 92 km (57 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sonoma County
Tehama County, CA 102 km (63 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tehama County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 18 km NNE of Upper Lake, California
  2. 2.2 12 km NE of Talmage, California
  3. 1.7 4 km ESE of Talmage, California
  4. 2.2 21 km NE of Potter Valley, California
  5. 1.6 near the coast of Northern California
  6. 1.6 20 km NNE of Upper Lake, California
  7. 1.6 19 km NNE of Upper Lake, California
  8. 2.5 3 km SSE of Potter Valley, California
  9. 1.7 25 km SE of Covelo, California
  10. 2.1 3 km NW of Redwood Valley, California
  11. 1.9 Northern California
  12. 2.0 8 km NNW of Elk Creek, California
  13. 1.5 17 km NE of Lucerne, California
  14. 1.6 near the coast of Northern California
  15. 1.6 3 km NW of Clearlake, California

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 5.1 on 2016-08-10 — it released about 180,000 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.