QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3md

9 km NNE of San Juan Bautista, California

· 6.1 km deep · released about 74 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 36 kmSanta Cruz County 45 kmSan Benito County 52 kmMerced County 77 kmMonterey County 78 kmStanislaus County 84 kmAlameda County 88 kmSan Mateo County 93 kmSan Joaquin County 114 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 2.3 (md)
Depth
6.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 36 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3260 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 74 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 140,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 13× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 74 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 36.9257, -121.5165. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 36 km (23 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 45 km (28 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Benito County, CA 52 km (32 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Merced County, CA 77 km (48 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Monterey County, CA 78 km (49 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Stanislaus County, CA 84 km (52 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 18 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  2. 2.5 17 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  3. 2.9 16 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  4. 1.9 17 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  5. 2.0 14 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  6. 1.8 16 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  7. 2.0 17 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  8. 1.9 Central California
  9. 1.8 17 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  10. 1.9 17 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  11. 2.8 16 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  12. 1.9 17 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  13. 2.1 18 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  14. 2.1 18 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California
  15. 1.9 18 km SSE of Tres Pinos, 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 4.2 on 2016-07-19 — it released about 870 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.