QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

21km S of Santa Cruz, CA

· 7.0 km deep · released about 12 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 25 kmSanta Clara County 59 kmSan Mateo County 74 kmSan Benito County 90 kmMonterey County 91 kmAlameda County 96 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 25 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3147 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 12 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 870,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 78× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 12 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 36.7907, -122.0750. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 25 km (16 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 59 km (37 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 74 km (46 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Benito County, CA 90 km (56 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 91 km (57 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Alameda County, CA 96 km (60 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda 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. 2.0 5km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 2.4 10km SW of Bonny Doon, CA
  3. 2.7 5km ESE of Aromas, CA
  4. 2.0 5km ESE of Aromas, CA
  5. 2.2 3km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 1.5 7km ESE of Prunedale, CA
  7. 1.6 3km E of Aromas, CA
  8. 1.8 11km SSW of Bonny Doon, CA
  9. 1.5 4km ENE of Boulder Creek, CA
  10. 1.6 6km NNW of Aromas, CA
  11. 1.7 6km NNW of Aromas, CA
  12. 1.5 6km NNW of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.6 8km N of Boulder Creek, CA
  14. 2.2 3km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  15. 2.3 3km S of San Juan Bautista, 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 4.0 on 2017-03-31 — it released about 2,500 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.