QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

24 km NE of Soledad, California

· 8.2 km deep · released about 2.7 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 6 kmMonterey County 42 kmMerced County 77 kmSanta Clara County 85 kmSanta Cruz County 90 kmStanislaus County 109 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
8.2 km below the surface
Felt
8 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
San Benito County, 6 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3448 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 8 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× 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

Epicentre 36.5887, -121.1448. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 6 km (4 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 42 km (26 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 77 km (48 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Santa Clara County, CA 85 km (53 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 90 km (56 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Stanislaus County, CA 109 km (68 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 16 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  2. 2.9 28 km ESE of Tres Pinos, California
  3. 1.6 13km ENE of Gonzales, CA
  4. 2.0 21 km NE of Soledad, California
  5. 1.7 25 km ENE of Greenfield, California
  6. 2.5 23 km NE of San Lucas, California
  7. 3.7 18 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  8. 2.5 7 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, California
  9. 2.2 7 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, California
  10. 2.6 7 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, California
  11. 1.8 24 km ENE of Soledad, California
  12. 2.0 23 km NE of Greenfield, California
  13. 2.2 3 km S of San Juan Bautista, California
  14. 1.5 23 km SSW of Los Banos, California
  15. 1.5 21 km NE of Soledad, 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 4.2 on 2016-07-19 — it released about 12 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.