QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.1mw

80 km W of Indianola, California

· 27 km deep · released about 630 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 106 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 5.1 (mw)
Depth
27 km below the surface
Felt
510 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Humboldt County, 106 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 279 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 510 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 630 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 270× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 12× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 8.5× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.1 about 630 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1,300× 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 40.7822, -125.1807. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 106 km (66 mi) W of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Del Norte County, CA 147 km (91 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Del Norte County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 59km W of Ferndale, CA
  2. 4.5 65km W of Petrolia, CA
  3. 2.7 96km W of Petrolia, CA
  4. 3.0 84km W of Petrolia, CA
  5. 2.9 99km WNW of Ferndale, CA
  6. 2.6 53km W of Petrolia, CA
  7. 2.7 72km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  8. 2.7 56km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  9. 2.9 119km W of Trinidad, CA
  10. 3.4 106km W of Ferndale, CA
  11. 3.1 96km W of Trinidad, CA
  12. 2.8 59km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  13. 2.6 65km W of Ferndale, CA
  14. 2.7 35km WNW of Ferndale, CA
  15. 2.6 35km WNW of Ferndale, CA

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 4.5 on 2016-05-27.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

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