QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

20km NW of Parkfield, CA

· 3.3 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 69 kmKings County 70 kmSan Luis Obispo County 72 kmSan Benito County 79 kmFresno County 117 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
3.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monterey County, 69 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2704 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 5.7 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 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 36.0260, -120.5940. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 69 km (43 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Kings County, CA 70 km (44 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 72 km (45 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
San Benito County, CA 79 km (49 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Fresno County, CA 117 km (73 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Fresno County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 16km SSE of New Idria, CA
  2. 1.6 7km WSW of Paso Robles, CA
  3. 1.5 17km NE of San Ardo, CA
  4. 1.8 7km WSW of Paso Robles, CA
  5. 2.2 20km NW of Parkfield, CA
  6. 3.1 9km NNW of Cholame, CA
  7. 1.9 7km NW of Huron, CA
  8. 1.7 21km NW of Parkfield, CA
  9. 1.5 20km NE of San Lucas, CA
  10. 1.8 16km SSE of New Idria, CA
  11. 2.5 16km NW of Parkfield, CA
  12. 1.6 23km SW of New Idria, CA
  13. 1.5 10km NNW of Cholame, CA
  14. 1.7 9km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  15. 2.4 14km NE of Coalinga, 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 2018-11-27 — it released about 5,200 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.