QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.7md

20km E of Alum Rock, CA

· 7.7 km deep · released about 290 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 16 kmAlameda County 43 kmSanta Cruz County 52 kmStanislaus County 58 kmSan Mateo County 69 kmContra Costa County 71 kmSan Joaquin County 71 kmMerced County 79 kmSan Benito County 94 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 2.7 (md)
Depth
7.7 km below the surface
Felt
9 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 16 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2603 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 9 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 290 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 51,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 36,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 3.2× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.7 about 290 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 37.3478, -121.5962. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 16 km (10 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 43 km (27 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 52 km (32 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Stanislaus County, CA 58 km (36 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 69 km (43 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 71 km (44 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 3km W of Cupertino, CA
  2. 1.9 5km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  3. 1.7 2km NE of Union City, CA
  4. 2.0 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  5. 2.5 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  6. 2.6 19km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  7. 2.9 19km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  8. 1.6 3km E of Morgan Hill, CA
  9. 1.9 11km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  10. 3.3 8km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  11. 1.7 11km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  12. 1.9 8km ENE of San Martin, CA
  13. 2.1 20km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  14. 1.6 19km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  15. 2.0 9km ENE of Milpitas, 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 140 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.