QuakeIndex

quarry blast · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

5km NNW of Moss Landing, CA

· -0.1 km deep · released about 8.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 26 kmSanta Clara County 44 kmSan Benito County 70 kmMonterey County 80 kmSan Mateo County 81 kmAlameda County 90 kmMerced County 105 kmStanislaus County 108 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
-0.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 26 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2420 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as quarry blast, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 8.7 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 8.7 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 36.8393, -121.8185. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 26 km (16 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 44 km (27 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Benito County, CA 70 km (44 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 80 km (50 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Mateo County, CA 81 km (50 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 90 km (56 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 2km ENE of Aromas, CA
  2. 1.5 13km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  3. 1.9 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  4. 3.2 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  5. 2.0 5km SE of Tres Pinos, CA
  6. 1.8 9km ENE of Morgan Hill, CA
  7. 1.7 3km SW of Lexington Hills, CA
  8. 2.3 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  9. 2.9 8km ESE of Prunedale, CA
  10. 1.9 2km ESE of Aromas, CA
  11. 2.0 12km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  12. 1.5 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.9 8km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  14. 2.3 4km ESE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  15. 2.4 13km NNW of Point Sur, 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 4.2 on 2016-07-19 — it released about 7,400 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.