QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

21 km NE of Potter Valley, California

· 3.3 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lake County 42 kmMendocino County 43 kmGlenn County 49 kmColusa County 68 kmTehama County 96 kmSonoma County 104 kmSutter County 116 kmButte County 117 kmNapa County 118 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
3.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lake County, 42 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3364 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.7 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 39.4578, -122.9410. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lake County, CA 42 km (26 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Lake County
Mendocino County, CA 43 km (27 mi) E of here earthquakes near Mendocino County
Glenn County, CA 49 km (30 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Colusa County, CA 68 km (42 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Tehama County, CA 96 km (60 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Tehama County
Sonoma County, CA 104 km (64 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sonoma County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.9 3 km NW of Redwood Valley, California
  2. 1.8 18 km NE of Upper Lake, California
  3. 1.6 19 km NE of Upper Lake, California
  4. 1.8 17 km NE of Upper Lake, California
  5. 1.5 19 km NNE of Upper Lake, California
  6. 1.5 9 km NE of Willits, California
  7. 1.5 15 km NE of Potter Valley, California
  8. 1.7 15 km NE of Potter Valley, California
  9. 1.9 15 km NE of Potter Valley, California
  10. 1.9 17 km NW of Elk Creek, California
  11. 1.6 8 km E of Willits, California
  12. 2.0 6 km ENE of Calpella, California
  13. 1.7 9 km ESE of Willits, California
  14. 1.6 19 km ENE of Potter Valley, California
  15. 1.7 20 km ENE of Potter Valley, 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 5.1 on 2016-08-10 — it released about 230,000 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.