QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.3mw

17km WSW of Laytonville, CA

· 7.0 km deep · released about 37 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mendocino County 26 kmLake County 95 kmGlenn County 107 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 4.3 (mw)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
643 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Mendocino County, 26 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3127 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 643 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 37 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 4,600× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 200× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.3 about 37 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 78× 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 39.6077, -123.6458. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mendocino County, CA 26 km (16 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Mendocino County
Lake County, CA 95 km (59 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lake County
Glenn County, CA 107 km (66 mi) W of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Trinity County, CA 124 km (77 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Trinity County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 17km NE of Fort Bragg, CA
  2. 1.6 18km NW of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  3. 2.0 8km NE of Covelo, CA
  4. 2.0 16km N of Laytonville, CA
  5. 2.3 16km N of Laytonville, CA
  6. 1.7 8km W of Redwood Valley, CA
  7. 1.5 9km ESE of Covelo, CA
  8. 1.8 17km WNW of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  9. 1.6 27km NNW of Covelo, CA
  10. 1.6 27km NNW of Covelo, CA
  11. 1.6 13km N of Brooktrails, CA
  12. 1.8 11km NNE of Redwood Valley, CA
  13. 1.8 14km WNW of Cape Vizcaino, CA
  14. 1.8 18km WNW of Brooktrails, CA
  15. 1.5 13km WSW of Laytonville, 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 2016-11-06.

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

On USGS

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