QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

6 km S of La Selva Beach, California

· 5.9 km deep · released about 8.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 20 kmSanta Clara County 41 kmSan Mateo County 75 kmSan Benito County 75 kmAlameda County 85 kmMonterey County 86 kmMerced County 106 kmStanislaus County 107 kmContra Costa County 116 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
5.9 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 20 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3450 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

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.

Where

Epicentre 36.8818, -121.8563. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 20 km (12 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 41 km (25 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 75 km (46 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Benito County, CA 75 km (47 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Alameda County, CA 85 km (53 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Monterey County, CA 86 km (54 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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
  2. 1.8 Central California
  3. 1.5 5 km SW of Ridgemark, California
  4. 1.9 6 km NE of Ridgemark, California
  5. 2.8 6 km NNE of Ridgemark, California
  6. 1.6 6 km SSE of Gilroy, California
  7. 3.1 4 km ESE of Interlaken, California
  8. 2.9 4 km ESE of Interlaken, California
  9. 1.8 7 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, California
  10. 1.6 10 km SSW of Tres Pinos, California
  11. 1.9 10 km SSW of Tres Pinos, California
  12. 2.1 8 km SSW of Tres Pinos, California
  13. 2.1 6 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.0 on 2017-03-31 — it released about 3,500 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.