QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

9km ENE of San Martin, CA

· 6.9 km deep · released about 9.6 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 20 kmSanta Cruz County 45 kmSan Benito County 67 kmStanislaus County 68 kmAlameda County 69 kmMerced County 71 kmSan Mateo County 83 kmSan Joaquin County 94 kmContra Costa County 98 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
6.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 20 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3000 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 9.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 99× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 9.6 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 37.1095, -121.5162. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 20 km (12 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 45 km (28 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Benito County, CA 67 km (42 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Stanislaus County, CA 68 km (42 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Alameda County, CA 69 km (43 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Merced County, CA 71 km (44 mi) W of here earthquakes near Merced County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 3km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 1.8 9km NNE of Alum Rock, CA
  3. 1.6 11km NE of Milpitas, CA
  4. 1.7 11km WSW of Ridgemark, CA
  5. 2.8 9km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  6. 2.4 24km SW of Gustine, CA
  7. 1.6 7km NE of Ridgemark, CA
  8. 2.5 9km NE of San Martin, CA
  9. 3.4 9km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  10. 2.0 5km WNW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  11. 1.8 23km SW of Gustine, CA
  12. 1.6 8km NE of Alum Rock, CA
  13. 2.3 6km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  14. 1.7 6km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  15. 2.2 9km NE of San Martin, 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 2016-07-19 — it released about 6,700 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.