QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

5km NE of Fairview, CA

· 6.5 km deep · released about 6.4 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 10 kmContra Costa County 24 kmSan Mateo County 46 kmSanta Clara County 60 kmSolano County 62 kmSan Joaquin County 69 kmMarin County 76 kmSanta Cruz County 77 kmStanislaus County 89 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
6.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alameda County, 10 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2455 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 6.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.4 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 37.7075, -121.9977. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 10 km (6 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 24 km (15 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Mateo County, CA 46 km (29 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Santa Clara County, CA 60 km (38 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Solano County, CA 62 km (39 mi) S of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Joaquin County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 1km WSW of Pleasant Hill, CA
  2. 2.3 1km W of Pleasant Hill, CA
  3. 1.8 1km S of San Ramon, CA
  4. 1.7 1km E of Fremont, CA
  5. 1.7 4km NNW of Pittsburg, CA
  6. 2.4 3km NW of Pittsburg, CA
  7. 1.6 4km ENE of Walnut Creek, CA
  8. 2.1 10km SE of Livermore, CA
  9. 1.6 1km N of San Pablo, CA
  10. 2.0 12km SW of Byron, CA
  11. 1.7 1km NE of Diablo, CA
  12. 2.1 1km NE of Diablo, CA
  13. 1.8 0km E of Diablo, CA
  14. 1.5 0km E of Diablo, CA
  15. 1.7 2km ESE of Woodside, 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 23,000 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.