QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

4km ENE of Walnut Creek, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 6 kmAlameda County 31 kmSolano County 40 kmSan Mateo County 64 kmSan Joaquin County 65 kmMarin County 66 kmNapa County 71 kmSanta Clara County 82 kmSacramento County 84 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
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 6 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2365 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 7.6 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 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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.

Where

Epicentre 37.9152, -122.0148. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 6 km (3 mi) W of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Alameda County, CA 31 km (19 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Solano County, CA 40 km (25 mi) S of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Mateo County, CA 64 km (40 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Joaquin County, CA 65 km (40 mi) W of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Marin County, CA 66 km (41 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Marin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 3km SW of American Canyon, CA
  2. 1.8 9km NNE of Milpitas, CA
  3. 2.2 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  4. 2.3 9km NE of Blackhawk, CA
  5. 1.8 1km WNW of Kensington, CA
  6. 1.8 7km N of Orinda, CA
  7. 1.9 5km ENE of Vallejo, CA
  8. 1.5 4km WSW of Brentwood, CA
  9. 2.1 10km SW of Brentwood, CA
  10. 1.5 1km SSE of Pleasanton, CA
  11. 1.6 14km SE of Livermore, CA
  12. 1.9 2km NNE of Alameda, CA
  13. 1.9 1km NW of Pleasant Hill, CA
  14. 1.8 10km NE of Blackhawk, CA
  15. 1.8 4km E of Livermore, 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 19,000 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.