QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

18 km E of Potter Valley, California

· 9.0 km deep · released about 17 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lake County 29 kmMendocino County 48 kmGlenn County 52 kmColusa County 60 kmSonoma County 90 kmTehama County 104 kmNapa County 105 kmSutter County 108 kmYolo County 113 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
9.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lake County, 29 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3314 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 17 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 870,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 55× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 17 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 39.3387, -122.8977. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lake County, CA 29 km (18 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Lake County
Mendocino County, CA 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Mendocino County
Glenn County, CA 52 km (32 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Colusa County, CA 60 km (37 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Sonoma County, CA 90 km (56 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sonoma County
Tehama County, CA 104 km (65 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tehama County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 8km NE of Clearlake, CA
  2. 1.6 13km W of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  3. 1.6 6km SE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  4. 1.5 18km NE of Upper Lake, CA
  5. 1.8 12km N of Brooktrails, CA
  6. 1.5 18km NE of Upper Lake, CA
  7. 2.2 13km SW of Lakeport, CA
  8. 1.8 19km NE of Upper Lake, CA
  9. 1.6 7 km E of Clearlake Oaks, California
  10. 1.6 7 km ENE of Brooktrails, California
  11. 2.0 7 km ENE of Brooktrails, California
  12. 1.8 4 km ESE of Lakeport, California
  13. 2.2 9 km SE of Willits, California
  14. 1.5 24 km SE of Covelo, California
  15. 2.2 12 km N of Brooktrails, 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 75,000 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.