QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

8km SW of Cantua Creek, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 590 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 65 kmKings County 67 kmFresno County 73 kmMonterey County 87 kmMerced County 87 kmMadera County 101 kmSan Luis Obispo County 119 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Benito County, 65 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2602 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 590 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 26,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 18,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 590 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 36.4610, -120.3848. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 65 km (40 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Kings County, CA 67 km (42 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Fresno County, CA 73 km (45 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Monterey County, CA 87 km (54 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 87 km (54 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Merced County
Madera County, CA 101 km (63 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Madera County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 3km NE of New Idria, CA
  2. 2.3 3km NE of New Idria, CA
  3. 1.9 3km ENE of New Idria, CA
  4. 3.1 4km NE of New Idria, CA
  5. 2.6 10km NNE of Coalinga, CA
  6. 2.0 12km NNE of Coalinga, CA
  7. 2.5 10km N of Coalinga, CA
  8. 1.6 22km NE of San Ardo, CA
  9. 2.5 7km WNW of Raisin City, CA
  10. 1.6 18km S of New Idria, CA
  11. 2.4 22km NE of San Lucas, CA
  12. 1.8 2km NE of New Idria, CA
  13. 2.1 2km NE of New Idria, CA
  14. 2.0 19km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  15. 1.7 22km NE of San Lucas, 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 51 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.