Earthquake near Castro Valley, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 11 km (7 mi) from the epicentre. In Castro Valley, 7 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: Castro Valley 7 km, intensity II · San Ramon 8 km, intensity II · San Leandro 9 km, intensity II · Danville 9 km, intensity II · Hayward 9 km, intensity II · San Lorenzo 11 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,700,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 9 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.4 on 2018-01-04 — about 12,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 8 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.9 The 1906 San Francisco, California Earthquake · 43 km W of this epicentre Apr 18, 1906
2. 5.8 The 1980 Livermore, California Earthquake · 27 km ENE of this epicentre Jan 24, 1980
3. 5.7 15 km NE of East Foothills, California · 44 km SE of this epicentre Mar 31, 1986
4. 5.5 6 km NNE of East Foothills, California · 43 km SE of this epicentre Oct 31, 2007
5. 5.4 9 km NE of Livermore, California · 31 km E of this epicentre Jan 27, 1980

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 37.7512, -122.0568. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.8 2km ENE of San Ramon, CA 15:06 UTC
2. 1.6 2km ENE of San Ramon, CA 15:05 UTC
3. 1.9 3km WSW of Portola Valley, CA 10:14 UTC
4. 2.0 3km W of Pittsburg, CA 07:26 UTC
5. 2.0 7km NW of San Francisco Zoo, CA 00:15 UTC
6. 1.5 1km ENE of Diablo, CA 18:01 UTC
7. 2.5 2km ENE of Danville, CA 19:01 UTC
8. 1.8 5km SSE of Portola Valley, CA 13:33 UTC
9. 2.2 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA 07:59 UTC
10. 1.9 9km NNE of Alum Rock, CA 02:13 UTC
11. 1.5 13km SE of Livermore, CA 10:33 UTC
12. 1.5 2km E of Danville, CA 03:40 UTC
13. 1.8 13km SE of Livermore, CA 01:22 UTC
14. 2.6 5km NNW of Diablo, CA 10:16 UTC
15. 3.3 5km NE of Alamo, CA 11:55 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:18 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

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