QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

14km N of Morgan Hill, CA

· 5.3 km deep · released about 1,600 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 6 kmSanta Cruz County 43 kmAlameda County 50 kmStanislaus County 65 kmSan Mateo County 68 kmContra Costa County 79 kmMerced County 81 kmSan Joaquin County 82 kmSan Benito 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
48 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 6 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1564 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 48 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,600 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,600 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× more

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 37.2570, -121.6342. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 6 km (4 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 43 km (27 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 50 km (31 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 65 km (41 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 68 km (42 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 79 km (49 mi) SSE 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

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

  1. 2.1 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  2. 1.6 3km S of Loyola, CA
  3. 2.7 5km ESE of Aromas, CA
  4. 1.5 8km ENE of Gilroy, CA
  5. 2.0 5km ESE of Aromas, CA
  6. 1.8 4km SW of Livermore, CA
  7. 1.7 3km S of Loyola, CA
  8. 1.6 10km NNE of Hollister, CA
  9. 1.7 3km S of Loyola, CA
  10. 1.6 12km NNW of Hollister, CA
  11. 1.9 9km E of Gilroy, CA
  12. 2.0 9km ENE of San Martin, CA
  13. 2.3 4km W of Hollister, CA
  14. 2.5 9km NE of Gilroy, CA
  15. 2.2 3km WSW 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 26 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.