QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6mh

3km E of Morgan Hill, CA

· 4.3 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 12 kmSanta Cruz County 37 kmAlameda County 63 kmStanislaus County 72 kmSan Mateo County 74 kmSan Benito County 75 kmMerced County 80 kmContra Costa County 92 kmSan Joaquin 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 1.6 (mh)
Depth
4.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 12 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2532 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 7.6 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 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 37.1347, -121.6178. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 12 km (7 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 37 km (23 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 63 km (39 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 72 km (45 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 74 km (46 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Benito County, CA 75 km (47 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 3km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 1.6 3km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  3. 1.8 3km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  4. 1.6 3km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  5. 2.7 5km S of Gilroy, CA
  6. 1.9 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  7. 2.9 3km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  8. 3.0 4km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  9. 2.8 4km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  10. 2.4 3km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  11. 2.6 4km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.9 7km NNE of Tres Pinos, CA
  13. 1.8 7km NNW of Hollister, CA
  14. 2.7 5km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  15. 3.0 5km SSW of Gilroy, 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 5,400 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.