Earthquake near Blackhawk, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 10 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In Blackhawk, 10 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Brentwood, Diablo, Byron, Clayton, San Ramon, Livermore.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.6 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 2,700,000× 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 5.6 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — about 27,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 6 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.8 The 1980 Livermore, California Earthquake · 3 km ENE of this epicentre Jan 24, 1980
2. 5.7 15 km NE of East Foothills, California · 41 km SSE of this epicentre Mar 31, 1986
3. 5.5 6 km NNE of East Foothills, California · 45 km S of this epicentre Oct 31, 2007
4. 5.4 9 km NE of Livermore, California · 13 km SE of this epicentre Jan 27, 1980
5. 5.3 6 km E of East Foothills, California · 49 km S of this epicentre Jun 13, 1988

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 37.8350, -121.7982. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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. 2.3 12km ESE of Suisun City, CA 12:54 UTC
2. 1.5 1km SSE of San Ramon, CA 22:44 UTC
3. 1.9 1km S of San Ramon, CA 11:26 UTC
4. 1.8 11km NNW of Pittsburg, CA 00:05 UTC
5. 1.9 2km NE of Danville, CA 14:24 UTC
6. 1.6 4km ESE of Fremont, CA 08:05 UTC
7. 1.8 13km SSE of Livermore, CA 01:54 UTC
8. 1.5 8km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:00 UTC
9. 2.1 8km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:00 UTC
10. 1.9 8km SW of Brentwood, CA 13:40 UTC
11. 2.0 9km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:01 UTC
12. 2.0 7km SE of Blackhawk, CA 04:40 UTC
13. 1.8 8km ESE of Blackhawk, CA 04:36 UTC
14. 1.7 10km SW of Brentwood, CA 22:11 UTC
15. 1.7 9km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:00 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 09:44 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.