QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0md

15km NNW of Pacific Grove, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 28 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 31 kmSanta Clara County 60 kmMonterey County 82 kmSan Benito County 82 kmSan Mateo County 83 kmAlameda County 102 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 2.0 (md)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 31 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2763 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 28 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 540,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 380,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 34× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 28 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 36.7365, -121.9942. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 31 km (19 mi) S of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 60 km (37 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Monterey County, CA 82 km (51 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 82 km (51 mi) W of here earthquakes near San Benito County
San Mateo County, CA 83 km (51 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 102 km (63 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 5km NNW of Aromas, CA
  2. 1.7 11km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  3. 1.6 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  4. 2.0 2km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  5. 1.5 3km E of Aromas, CA
  6. 1.9 7km ESE of Prunedale, CA
  7. 2.0 2km NNE of Del Monte Forest, CA
  8. 1.6 6km NNW of Aromas, CA
  9. 1.6 3km E of Aromas, CA
  10. 1.6 6km E of Aromas, CA
  11. 2.8 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  12. 1.6 14km WNW of Point Sur, CA
  13. 1.6 8km N of Day Valley, CA
  14. 1.9 6km S of Gilroy, CA
  15. 2.0 4km W of San Juan Bautista, 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 4.0 on 2017-03-31 — it released about 1,100 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.