QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8ml

5km NE of Hydesville, CA

· 28 km deep · released about 550 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 18 kmTrinity County 79 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 2.8 (ml)
Depth
28 km below the surface
Felt
44 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Humboldt County, 18 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3209 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 44 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 550 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 28,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 19,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.7× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 550 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 40.5722, -124.0507. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 18 km (11 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 79 km (49 mi) W of here earthquakes near Trinity County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 20km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  2. 2.4 11km WSW of Rio Dell, CA
  3. 2.5 17km ESE of Hydesville, CA
  4. 1.8 12km SSE of Rio Dell, CA
  5. 2.5 20km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  6. 1.9 11km S of Rio Dell, CA
  7. 2.3 25km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  8. 1.7 19km NW of Petrolia, CA
  9. 2.9 18km NW of Petrolia, CA
  10. 2.2 10km S of Ferndale, CA
  11. 2.5 18km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  12. 4.7 22km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  13. 4.4 17km W of Humboldt Hill, CA
  14. 2.5 17km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  15. 2.5 30km W of Bayview, 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 4.8 on 2016-07-21 — it released about 900 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.