QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

4km SW of Livermore, CA

· 9.6 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 10 kmContra Costa County 32 kmSanta Clara County 49 kmSan Joaquin County 55 kmSan Mateo County 58 kmSolano County 69 kmStanislaus County 71 kmSanta Cruz County 74 kmMarin County 94 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
9.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alameda County, 10 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2963 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 37.6572, -121.7955. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 10 km (6 mi) E of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 32 km (20 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Santa Clara County, CA 49 km (31 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Joaquin County, CA 55 km (34 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
San Mateo County, CA 58 km (36 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Solano County, CA 69 km (43 mi) S of here earthquakes near Solano 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. 1.5 16km SSE of Livermore, CA
  2. 1.7 2km E of Hayward, CA
  3. 1.6 2km W of Diablo, CA
  4. 2.7 8km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  5. 1.5 3km S of Loyola, CA
  6. 2.5 9km E of Alum Rock, CA
  7. 2.8 15km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  8. 1.8 2km NE of San Ramon, CA
  9. 2.2 1km NNW of Alamo, CA
  10. 1.6 2km SW of Diablo, CA
  11. 1.9 4km S of Loyola, CA
  12. 1.9 10km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  13. 1.5 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  14. 1.7 3km NW of Diablo, CA
  15. 2.3 16km SSE of Livermore, 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 7,400 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.