QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

6km NNW of Aromas, CA

· 7.1 km deep · released about 3.8 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 32 kmSanta Cruz County 32 kmSan Benito County 63 kmAlameda County 82 kmSan Mateo County 82 kmMonterey County 83 kmMerced County 88 kmStanislaus County 91 kmContra Costa County 112 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
7.1 km below the surface
Felt
5228 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 32 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2654 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 5228 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.9× 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 36.9373, -121.6610. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 32 km (20 mi) S of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 32 km (20 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Benito County, CA 63 km (39 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Alameda County, CA 82 km (51 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
San Mateo County, CA 82 km (51 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Monterey County, CA 83 km (52 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  2. 1.6 3km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  3. 1.8 15km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 2.1 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  5. 1.6 27km NE of Hollister, CA
  6. 1.6 13km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  7. 2.7 11km NNW of Hollister, CA
  8. 3.4 11km NNW of Hollister, CA
  9. 1.9 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  10. 2.1 6km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  11. 2.3 12km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  12. 2.5 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  13. 1.9 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  14. 2.6 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  15. 3.3 10km E of Gilroy, 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 4.2 on 2016-07-19 — it released about 8.5 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.