QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

9km NNE of Milpitas, CA

· 7.0 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 18 kmSanta Clara County 34 kmSan Mateo County 47 kmContra Costa County 48 kmSanta Cruz County 56 kmSan Joaquin County 71 kmStanislaus County 75 kmSolano County 86 kmMarin County 100 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
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alameda County, 18 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2852 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 11 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 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 930,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 83× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 37.4962, -121.8515. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 18 km (11 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Clara County, CA 34 km (21 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 47 km (29 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 48 km (30 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Santa Cruz County, CA 56 km (35 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Joaquin County, CA 71 km (44 mi) SW 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

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

  1. 1.7 3km WNW of Diablo, CA
  2. 1.5 3km S of Loyola, CA
  3. 2.3 8km E of Alum Rock, CA
  4. 1.7 11km SE of Livermore, CA
  5. 2.5 12km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA
  6. 2.7 3km NNE of San Ramon, CA
  7. 2.8 3km NE of Oakland, CA
  8. 2.4 17km ESE of Livermore, CA
  9. 1.8 8km SSE of Portola Valley, CA
  10. 2.1 3km SW of Monte Sereno, CA
  11. 2.0 11km NNE of Alum Rock, CA
  12. 1.8 12km SSW of Mountain House, CA
  13. 1.7 12km SSW of Mountain House, CA
  14. 1.6 14km ESE of Livermore, CA
  15. 2.0 10km ENE of Blackhawk, 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 3,600 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.