QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

24km WSW of Los Banos, CA

· 0.8 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Merced County 40 kmSan Benito County 43 kmSanta Clara County 57 kmStanislaus County 63 kmSanta Cruz County 80 kmMonterey County 86 kmAlameda County 101 kmSan Joaquin County 105 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
0.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Merced County, 40 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3123 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 730,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 65× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 36.9995, -121.1073. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Merced County, CA 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Benito County, CA 43 km (27 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 57 km (36 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 63 km (39 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Santa Cruz County, CA 80 km (50 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Monterey County, CA 86 km (54 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey 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. 1.5 5km SSW of Ridgemark, CA
  2. 1.6 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 1.8 9km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  4. 2.4 10km NNW of Hollister, CA
  5. 1.8 8km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  6. 1.6 5km N of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 2.1 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 2.0 3km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.6 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  10. 1.9 14km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 2.0 8km NE of Ridgemark, CA
  12. 1.5 14km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  13. 1.6 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 1.6 12km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  15. 3.3 4km NNW of Pinnacles, 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 4.6 on 2017-11-13 — it released about 15,000 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.