QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

5km SSW of Port Costa, CA

· 9.4 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 24 kmSolano County 37 kmAlameda County 47 kmMarin County 48 kmNapa County 57 kmSan Mateo County 67 kmYolo County 79 kmSan Francisco County 79 kmSan Joaquin County 82 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
9.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 24 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1671 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 38.0053, -122.1990. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 24 km (15 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Solano County, CA 37 km (23 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Solano County
Alameda County, CA 47 km (29 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Marin County, CA 48 km (30 mi) E of here earthquakes near Marin County
Napa County, CA 57 km (35 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Napa County
San Mateo County, CA 67 km (42 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 3km ENE of San Ramon, CA
  2. 1.6 3km NNE of Green Valley, CA
  3. 1.9 2km SE of Pacheco, CA
  4. 1.7 5km NW of Sunol, CA
  5. 2.1 2km NW of Concord, CA
  6. 2.0 6km SSW of Yountville, CA
  7. 1.8 1km ESE of Pacheco, CA
  8. 1.9 2km NNE of San Ramon, CA
  9. 2.2 1km SW of Danville, CA
  10. 1.9 4km N of Diablo, CA
  11. 1.5 6km ENE of Vallejo, CA
  12. 1.5 10km E of Blackhawk, CA
  13. 1.5 3km NE of Union City, CA
  14. 1.9 3km NW of Castro Valley, CA
  15. 1.5 5km E of Oakland, 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 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 9,800 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.