QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9md

14km SW of Santa Cruz, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 23 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 18 kmSanta Clara County 55 kmSan Mateo County 62 kmAlameda County 87 kmSan Benito County 99 kmMonterey County 103 kmContra Costa County 116 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 1.9 (md)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 18 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2361 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 23 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 660,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 470,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 42× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 23 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 36.8880, -122.1397. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 18 km (11 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 55 km (34 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 62 km (39 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 87 km (54 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
San Benito County, CA 99 km (61 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 103 km (64 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  2. 1.9 3km E of Aromas, CA
  3. 2.7 7km N of Boulder Creek, CA
  4. 2.2 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  5. 1.6 1km NNE of Aromas, CA
  6. 2.5 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  7. 1.7 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  8. 2.2 2km SW of Lexington Hills, CA
  9. 1.6 3km E of Aromas, CA
  10. 2.5 5km NNW of Aromas, CA
  11. 1.5 18km W of Boulder Creek, CA
  12. 1.6 3km E of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.9 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  14. 1.7 14km SW of Santa Cruz, CA
  15. 1.8 4km ESE of Aromas, 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 4.0 on 2017-03-31 — it released about 1,300 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.