QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

15 km SSE of Livermore, California

· 3.5 km deep · released about 610 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 22 kmSanta Clara County 37 kmContra Costa County 47 kmSan Joaquin County 56 kmStanislaus County 61 kmSan Mateo County 62 kmSanta Cruz County 66 kmSolano County 82 kmMerced County 95 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
3.5 km below the surface
Felt
30 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Alameda County, 22 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2628 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 30 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 610 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 25,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 18,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 610 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 37.5527, -121.6937. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 22 km (14 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Clara County, CA 37 km (23 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Contra Costa County, CA 47 km (29 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Joaquin County, CA 56 km (35 mi) SW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Stanislaus County, CA 61 km (38 mi) W of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 62 km (38 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 2km WNW of Diablo, CA
  2. 1.7 6km E of Fremont, CA
  3. 1.8 9km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  4. 1.8 6km W of French Camp, CA
  5. 1.8 9km E of Livermore, CA
  6. 1.6 3km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  7. 2.0 12km SSW of Mountain House, CA
  8. 2.5 8km ENE of San Martin, CA
  9. 2.9 16km E of Seven Trees, CA
  10. 1.6 10km NNE of Alum Rock, CA
  11. 2.0 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  12. 1.7 4km SW of Stanford, CA
  13. 2.3 3km N of San Leandro, CA
  14. 3.0 16km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  15. 1.5 7km SE of Seven Trees, 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 68 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.