QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.4mw

13km ESE of Blue Lake, CA

· 26 km deep · released about 58 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 17 kmTrinity County 65 kmDel Norte County 101 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 4.4 (mw)
Depth
26 km below the surface
Felt
656 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Humboldt County, 17 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1093 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 656 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 58 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2,900× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 92× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.4 about 58 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 120× 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 40.8465, -123.8395. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 17 km (11 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 65 km (40 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Del Norte County, CA 101 km (63 mi) S of here earthquakes near Del Norte County
Siskiyou County, CA 137 km (85 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Siskiyou County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 17km SE of Willow Creek, CA
  2. 2.1 16km ENE of Hydesville, CA
  3. 2.4 2km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  4. 2.6 7km SE of Pine Hills, CA
  5. 1.6 30km S of Willow Creek, CA
  6. 1.8 16km ESE of Willow Creek, CA
  7. 2.0 35km W of Hayfork, CA
  8. 2.4 6km WNW of Ferndale, CA
  9. 1.7 5km N of Ferndale, CA
  10. 2.3 6km ENE of Hydesville, CA
  11. 2.3 15km W of McKinleyville, CA
  12. 2.2 6km W of Rio Dell, CA
  13. 1.8 17km ESE of Pine Hills, CA
  14. 1.6 4km WNW of Ferndale, CA
  15. 1.9 8km S of Blue Lake, 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 4.8 on 2016-07-21 — it released about 4.3 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.