QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

22km W of Los Banos, CA

· 3.3 km deep · released about 9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Merced County 37 kmSan Benito County 50 kmSanta Clara County 55 kmStanislaus County 57 kmSanta Cruz County 80 kmMonterey County 93 kmAlameda County 97 kmSan Joaquin County 99 kmSan Mateo 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
3.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Merced County, 37 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2566 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 9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 9 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 37.0570, -121.1033. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Merced County, CA 37 km (23 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Benito County, CA 50 km (31 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 55 km (34 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 57 km (35 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Santa Cruz County, CA 80 km (50 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Monterey County, CA 93 km (58 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  2. 2.6 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  3. 1.8 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  4. 1.9 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 1.9 5km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  6. 1.6 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  7. 3.6 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 1.7 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  9. 2.0 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  10. 2.5 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  11. 3.3 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  12. 2.0 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 1.5 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 1.9 15km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  15. 1.7 16km NW of Pinnacles, 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 25,000 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.