QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

23km W of Los Banos, CA

· 9.5 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Merced County 39 kmSan Benito County 46 kmSanta Clara County 56 kmStanislaus County 60 kmSanta Cruz County 80 kmMonterey County 89 kmAlameda County 99 kmSan Joaquin 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
9.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Merced County, 39 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2764 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 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 37.0250, -121.1055. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Merced County, CA 39 km (24 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Benito County, CA 46 km (29 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 56 km (35 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 60 km (38 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Santa Cruz County, CA 80 km (50 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Monterey County, CA 89 km (55 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 4km NNW of Hollister, CA
  2. 2.7 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  3. 1.6 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  4. 2.2 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  5. 1.7 13km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  6. 2.1 13km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 1.6 8km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 2.6 10km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.5 3km E of Aromas, CA
  10. 2.4 3km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  11. 1.9 12km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  12. 1.5 12km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  13. 3.6 10km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  14. 2.3 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  15. 2.0 7km WSW of Gilroy, 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 42,000 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.