QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

5km NNW of Pinnacles, CA

· 3.5 km deep · released about 1,500 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 8 kmMonterey County 39 kmMerced County 80 kmSanta Clara County 86 kmSanta Cruz County 90 kmStanislaus County 111 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
3.5 km below the surface
Felt
18 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
San Benito County, 8 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2759 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 18 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,500 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 230,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 10,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,500 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.6× 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 36.5698, -121.1630. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 8 km (5 mi) SW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 39 km (24 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 80 km (50 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Santa Clara County, CA 86 km (54 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 90 km (56 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Stanislaus County, CA 111 km (69 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus 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 22km NE of San Lucas, CA
  2. 1.6 5km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 2.3 6km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 3.2 20km SW of New Idria, CA
  5. 2.1 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  6. 2.0 2km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 1.5 9km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  8. 1.9 11km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.6 2km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  10. 1.5 10km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 1.9 2km N of Pinnacles, CA
  12. 1.5 23km NNE of San Lucas, CA
  13. 2.0 10km N of Pinnacles, CA
  14. 2.2 2km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  15. 2.2 4km NNW of Pinnacles, 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 4.6 on 2017-11-13 — it released about 150 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.