QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

5km ESE of St. Helena, CA

· 10 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Napa County 8 kmSonoma County 45 kmSolano County 48 kmYolo County 50 kmMarin County 56 kmContra Costa County 75 kmLake County 75 kmColusa County 79 kmSutter County 87 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Napa County, 8 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3071 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 5.9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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.

Where

Epicentre 38.4840, -122.4147. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Napa County, CA 8 km (5 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Napa County
Sonoma County, CA 45 km (28 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sonoma County
Solano County, CA 48 km (30 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Solano County
Yolo County, CA 50 km (31 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Yolo County
Marin County, CA 56 km (35 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Marin County
Contra Costa County, CA 75 km (46 mi) NNW 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

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

  1. 1.8 1km NW of The Geysers, CA
  2. 1.6 3km WNW of Anderson Springs, CA
  3. 2.0 4km W of Cobb, CA
  4. 1.5 5km WNW of The Geysers, CA
  5. 2.6 5km NW of The Geysers, CA
  6. 2.5 6km NW of The Geysers, CA
  7. 2.2 3km SSW of Cobb, CA
  8. 2.4 6km NNW of The Geysers, CA
  9. 2.0 3km NW of The Geysers, CA
  10. 1.7 3km NW of The Geysers, CA
  11. 2.7 3km NW of The Geysers, CA
  12. 3.1 3km NW of The Geysers, CA
  13. 4.2 5km NW of The Geysers, CA
  14. 1.9 4km E of Healdsburg, CA
  15. 1.6 3km WNW of The Geysers, 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 2018-01-18 — it released about 11,000 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.