Earthquake near La Selva Beach, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 10 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In La Selva Beach, 6 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Likely felt in: Watsonville 9 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 8.7 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 1,700,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 8.7 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

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.0 on 2017-03-31 — about 3,500 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 31 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 The 1989 Loma Prieta, California Earthquake · 17 km N of this epicentre Oct 18, 1989
2. 6.5 Near Morgan Hill, California · 32 km NE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1911
3. 6.3 22 km S of Davenport, California · 32 km WSW of this epicentre Oct 22, 1926
4. 6.3 16 km SW of Davenport, California · 43 km W of this epicentre Oct 22, 1926
5. 6.2 Near San Jose, California · 47 km N of this epicentre Aug 3, 1903

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 36.8818, -121.8563. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 7 km N of Boulder Creek, California 00:03 UTC
2. 1.8 Central California 10:37 UTC
3. 1.5 5 km SW of Ridgemark, California 04:30 UTC
4. 1.9 6 km NE of Ridgemark, California 17:35 UTC
5. 2.8 6 km NNE of Ridgemark, California 16:59 UTC
6. 1.6 6 km SSE of Gilroy, California 05:48 UTC
7. 3.1 4 km ESE of Interlaken, California 22:32 UTC
8. 2.9 4 km ESE of Interlaken, California 22:21 UTC
9. 1.8 7 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, California 17:55 UTC
10. 1.6 10 km SSW of Tres Pinos, California 12:12 UTC
11. 1.9 10 km SSW of Tres Pinos, California 11:01 UTC
12. 2.1 8 km SSW of Tres Pinos, California 18:19 UTC
13. 2.1 6 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, California 19:44 UTC
14. 2.4 8 km ENE of San Martin, California 18:04 UTC
15. 1.9 9 km NE of San Martin, California 12:23 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:35 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.