QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

7km WSW of Petrolia, CA

· 8.8 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 58 kmTrinity County 112 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
8.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Humboldt County, 58 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2435 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 5.7 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 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 40.3043, -124.3608. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 58 km (36 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 112 km (70 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Mendocino County, CA 125 km (77 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Mendocino County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 12km S of Ferndale, CA
  2. 2.1 12km WSW of Rio Dell, CA
  3. 1.9 13km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  4. 1.8 10km N of Petrolia, CA
  5. 2.2 13km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  6. 1.7 7km NE of Petrolia, CA
  7. 1.8 12km SSE of Rio Dell, CA
  8. 2.3 36km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  9. 1.9 22km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  10. 2.4 34km W of Petrolia, CA
  11. 1.9 11km W of Petrolia, CA
  12. 2.2 42km WNW of Petrolia, CA
  13. 1.7 23km NW of Petrolia, CA
  14. 1.5 10km SSW of Rio Dell, CA
  15. 1.7 12km NW of Petrolia, 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 5.6 on 2019-06-23 — it released about 1,200,000 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.