QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2mw

1km SW of Oakley, CA

· 10 km deep · released about 1.1 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 22 kmSolano County 36 kmSan Joaquin County 40 kmAlameda County 42 kmSacramento County 61 kmNapa County 78 kmYolo County 78 kmStanislaus County 79 kmSanta Clara County 86 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 3.2 (mw)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
982 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 22 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1070 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 982 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.1 tons 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 6.7 150,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 6,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.3× 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 37.9912, -121.7205. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 22 km (14 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Solano County, CA 36 km (22 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Joaquin County, CA 40 km (25 mi) W of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Alameda County, CA 42 km (26 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Sacramento County, CA 61 km (38 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sacramento County
Napa County, CA 78 km (48 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Napa County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 2km W of Diablo, CA
  2. 1.6 4km NE of Vallejo, CA
  3. 1.8 2km NE of San Ramon, CA
  4. 2.0 14km N of Pittsburg, CA
  5. 2.2 1km NNW of Alamo, CA
  6. 1.6 2km SW of Diablo, CA
  7. 1.5 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  8. 1.7 3km NW of Diablo, CA
  9. 2.3 16km SSE of Livermore, CA
  10. 1.6 4km NNW of San Leandro, CA
  11. 1.8 6km ESE of San Ramon, CA
  12. 1.6 6km ESE of San Ramon, CA
  13. 1.6 9km WSW of Brentwood, CA
  14. 1.9 2km N of San Leandro, CA
  15. 1.8 2km E of San Leandro, 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 4.4 on 2018-01-04 — it released about 51 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.