Earthquake near Danville, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 24 km (15 mi) from the epicentre. 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: Danville in town, intensity III · Alamo 5 km, intensity III · San Ramon 6 km, intensity III · Walnut Creek 11 km, intensity III · Lafayette 13 km, intensity II · Pleasant Hill 15 km, intensity II · Dublin 15 km, intensity II · Concord 17 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 310 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 50,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 35,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 3.1× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.7 about 310 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 370 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 6 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.8 The 1980 Livermore, California Earthquake · 19 km E of this epicentre Jan 24, 1980
2. 5.7 15 km NE of East Foothills, California · 47 km SE of this epicentre Mar 31, 1986
3. 5.5 6 km NNE of East Foothills, California · 48 km SSE of this epicentre Oct 31, 2007
4. 5.4 9 km NE of Livermore, California · 26 km ESE of this epicentre Jan 27, 1980
5. 5.3 The 1957 San Francisco, California Earthquake · 48 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 22, 1957

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 37.8313, -121.9837. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.5 5km NNE of Fremont, CA 15:47 UTC
2. 1.8 3km E of Hayward, CA 05:20 UTC
3. 1.9 3km NNE of Bay Point, CA 16:47 UTC
4. 1.6 3km NW of Castro Valley, CA 11:05 UTC
5. 2.9 2km NW of Castro Valley, CA 18:52 UTC
6. 1.6 8km SSW of Brentwood, CA 19:16 UTC
7. 1.9 7km SSW of Brentwood, CA 17:51 UTC
8. 1.7 2km SE of Danville, CA 01:59 UTC
9. 2.0 3km N of San Leandro, CA 15:05 UTC
10. 1.8 2km ESE of Discovery Bay, CA 08:44 UTC
11. 2.0 2km SW of Oakley, CA 08:00 UTC
12. 2.7 2km SW of Oakley, CA 07:46 UTC
13. 3.2 1km SW of Oakley, CA 07:41 UTC
14. 1.7 1km SE of Oakley, CA 06:53 UTC
15. 1.8 1km SE of Oakley, CA 05:17 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 20:29 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.