Earthquake near Blue Lake, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 10 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In Blue Lake, 11 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Bayside, Arcata, Willow Creek, McKinleyville, Myrtletown, Westhaven-Moonstone.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 270 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 57,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 40,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 3.6× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 270 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.8 on 2016-07-21 — about 1,900 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 15 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.2 The 1980 Eureka, California Earthquake · 42 km NW of this epicentre Nov 8, 1980
2. 6.5 The 1932 Eureka, California Earthquake · 40 km WSW of this epicentre Jun 6, 1932
3. 6.4 The 1954 Eureka-Arcata, California Earthquake · 6 km SW of this epicentre Dec 21, 1954
4. 5.8 Near Eureka, California · 16 km SW of this epicentre Aug 18, 1908
5. 5.6 15 km SW of Burnt Ranch, California · 28 km SE of this epicentre Aug 20, 1927

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 40.8857, -123.8530. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.4 16km SW of Willow Creek, CA 01:09 UTC
2. 2.2 37km W of Hayfork, CA 10:22 UTC
3. 2.0 38km W of Hayfork, CA 02:09 UTC
4. 2.6 3km WNW of Hydesville, CA 18:16 UTC
5. 2.9 30km NE of Willow Creek, CA 04:23 UTC
6. 2.9 11km SE of Weitchpec, CA 09:31 UTC
7. 2.5 8km SW of McKinleyville, CA 06:34 UTC
8. 1.6 9km ESE of Hydesville, CA 01:49 UTC
9. 1.7 17km ENE of Hydesville, CA 05:13 UTC
10. 3.2 13km ESE of Blue Lake, CA 01:00 UTC
11. 2.0 8km E of Hydesville, CA 18:19 UTC
12. 2.4 14km WNW of Bayview, CA 21:34 UTC
13. 3.0 27km WNW of Hayfork, CA 07:30 UTC
14. 2.4 17km SE of Willow Creek, CA 15:27 UTC
15. 2.1 16km ENE of Hydesville, CA 08:14 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:53 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.