QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

23km NNE of San Lucas, CA

· 6.5 km deep · released about 43 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 39 kmMonterey County 40 kmKings County 99 kmMerced County 101 kmSan Luis Obispo County 109 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
6.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Benito County, 39 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2658 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 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 36.2997, -120.8805. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 39 km (24 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 40 km (25 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Kings County, CA 99 km (61 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Merced County, CA 101 km (62 mi) S of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 109 km (67 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 121 km (75 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 12km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 2.6 6km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 1.6 12km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 2.0 15km NNW of Coalinga, CA
  5. 1.5 7km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  6. 1.6 5km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 2.2 22km ENE of San Lucas, CA
  8. 1.6 13km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.6 10km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  10. 2.4 9km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  11. 1.6 10km N of Pinnacles, CA
  12. 1.9 24km NE of King City, CA
  13. 2.1 16km SSE of New Idria, CA
  14. 1.9 10km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  15. 1.5 17km NE of San Ardo, 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 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.