Earthquake near San Jose, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In San Jose, 47 km away, the estimate is intensity I (not felt). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Lompico.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 19 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 790,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 560,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 50× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 19 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.

For this area

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 13 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 The 1989 Loma Prieta, California Earthquake · 45 km ESE of this epicentre Oct 18, 1989
2. 6.3 22 km S of Davenport, California · 40 km SSE of this epicentre Oct 22, 1926
3. 6.3 16 km SW of Davenport, California · 25 km S of this epicentre Oct 22, 1926
4. 5.8 7 km NNW of Boulder Creek, California · 20 km ENE of this epicentre Sep 5, 1955
5. 5.7 Monterey Bay area, California · 45 km SSE of this epicentre Dec 31, 1910

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 37.1460, -122.3643. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 10km NNW of Boulder Creek, CA 20:50 UTC
2. 1.7 21km S of Santa Cruz, CA 23:16 UTC
3. 1.7 7km WNW of Lexington Hills, CA 00:51 UTC
4. 1.7 4km SW of Stanford, CA 17:30 UTC
5. 2.1 11km SSW of Loyola, CA 16:14 UTC
6. 2.0 8km SW of Los Altos Hills, CA 19:08 UTC
7. 2.6 4km W of Cupertino, CA 11:34 UTC
8. 1.6 6km ENE of El Granada, CA 19:07 UTC
9. 1.9 4km NE of Portola Valley, CA 15:30 UTC
10. 1.6 3 km W of Portola Valley, California 02:55 UTC
11. 1.8 4 km WNW of La Honda, California 16:28 UTC
12. 1.7 1 km N of North Fair Oaks, California 19:36 UTC
13. 1.6 6 km NNW of Day Valley, California 04:08 UTC
14. 2.5 19 km WNW of Davenport, California 09:02 UTC
15. 1.6 0 km S of Los Altos Hills, California 04:50 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:47 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.