QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3md

2km E of Bonny Doon, CA

· 9.6 km deep · released about 74 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 11 kmSanta Clara County 44 kmSan Mateo County 47 kmAlameda County 70 kmContra Costa County 99 kmSan Benito County 104 kmSan Francisco County 110 kmMonterey County 115 kmStanislaus County 115 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 2.3 (md)
Depth
9.6 km below the surface
Felt
4 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 11 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2714 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 4 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 74 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 140,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 13× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 74 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 37.0422, -122.1283. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 11 km (7 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 44 km (27 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 47 km (29 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 70 km (43 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 99 km (61 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Benito County, CA 104 km (65 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 5km NNW of Aromas, CA
  2. 1.6 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  3. 1.5 3km E of Aromas, CA
  4. 2.5 4km SW of Saratoga, CA
  5. 2.0 4km SW of Saratoga, CA
  6. 1.5 13km NNW of Boulder Creek, CA
  7. 1.8 32km WNW of Bonny Doon, CA
  8. 2.6 14km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  9. 1.9 7km E of Alum Rock, CA
  10. 1.9 5km S of Portola Valley, CA
  11. 1.6 6km NNW of Aromas, CA
  12. 1.6 3km E of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.5 2km WSW of Los Altos Hills, CA
  14. 2.8 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  15. 3.3 16km N of Morgan Hill, 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 410 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.