QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

22km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA

· 7.8 km deep · released about 9.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 16 kmAlameda County 49 kmSanta Cruz County 52 kmStanislaus County 56 kmSan Mateo County 73 kmSan Joaquin County 74 kmMerced County 75 kmContra Costa County 76 kmSan Benito County 88 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
7.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 16 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2920 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 37.3107, -121.5535. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 16 km (10 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 49 km (30 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 52 km (32 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Stanislaus County, CA 56 km (35 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 73 km (45 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Joaquin County, CA 74 km (46 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 10km E of Alum Rock, CA
  2. 2.5 16km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  3. 2.9 28km E of Alum Rock, CA
  4. 2.6 26km W of Los Banos, CA
  5. 1.6 8km NE of Gilroy, CA
  6. 2.2 10km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  7. 2.6 9km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  8. 1.6 2km E of Aromas, CA
  9. 1.5 22km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  10. 2.0 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  11. 1.8 9km NE of Milpitas, CA
  12. 2.4 10km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  13. 1.5 2km ENE of Aromas, CA
  14. 1.9 8km NE of Gilroy, CA
  15. 1.8 18km 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 4,300 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.