QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.0ml

16km N of Morgan Hill, CA

· 6.0 km deep · released about 860 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 7 kmSanta Cruz County 43 kmAlameda County 48 kmStanislaus County 65 kmSan Mateo County 66 kmContra Costa County 77 kmSan Joaquin County 81 kmMerced County 82 kmSan Benito County 89 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 3.0 (ml)
Depth
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
228 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 7 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3092 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 228 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 860 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 390,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 18,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 12,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.0 about 860 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 37.2738, -121.6462. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 7 km (4 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 43 km (27 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 48 km (30 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 65 km (41 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 66 km (41 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 77 km (48 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 5km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 2.8 5km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  3. 3.0 5km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  4. 2.0 9km NE of Gilroy, CA
  5. 2.6 9km NE of Gilroy, CA
  6. 2.5 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  7. 2.0 8km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  8. 1.6 2km E of Aromas, CA
  9. 1.8 27km WSW of Westley, CA
  10. 1.6 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  11. 1.8 11km NNW of Hollister, CA
  12. 2.8 5km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 1.7 4km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  14. 1.8 3km NNE of Fremont, CA
  15. 2.4 5km ESE of Interlaken, 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 48 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.