QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8md

Northern California

· 8.5 km deep · released about 510 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 23 kmAlameda County 28 kmSanta Cruz County 50 kmSan Mateo County 54 kmContra Costa County 58 kmStanislaus County 69 kmSan Joaquin County 72 kmMerced County 95 kmSolano County 95 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 2.8 (md)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
62 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 23 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3461 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 62 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 510 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 30,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 21,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.9× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 510 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 37.4198, -121.7632. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 23 km (14 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 28 km (18 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 50 km (31 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 54 km (33 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 58 km (36 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Stanislaus County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 Northern California
  2. 1.6 11 km SE of Sunol, CA
  3. 1.7 2 km S of Loyola, California
  4. 2.2 5 km S of Livermore, California
  5. 1.5 1 km W of Los Altos Hills, California
  6. 1.6 7 km N of Boulder Creek, California
  7. 1.6 4 km SSW of Byron, California
  8. 1.8 4 km ENE of La Honda, California
  9. 1.7 3 km WSW of Loyola, California
  10. 1.5 2 km S of Loyola, California
  11. 1.7 2 km NE of San Ramon, California
  12. 1.6 4 km NNW of Union City, California
  13. 2.0 19 km E of East Foothills, California
  14. 2.4 8 km ENE of San Martin, California
  15. 1.9 9 km NE of San Martin, 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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.