QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

10km E of Alum Rock, CA

· 8.5 km deep · released about 14 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 15 kmAlameda County 37 kmSanta Cruz County 46 kmSan Mateo County 58 kmContra Costa County 66 kmStanislaus County 67 kmSan Joaquin County 75 kmMerced County 90 kmSan Benito County 100 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 15 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2312 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 14 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 790,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 70× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 14 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 37.3585, -121.7147. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 15 km (10 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 37 km (23 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 46 km (29 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 58 km (36 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Stanislaus County, CA 67 km (42 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 0km SW of Los Gatos, CA
  2. 1.8 10km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  3. 1.5 9km WSW of Mountain House, CA
  4. 1.7 9km NE of San Martin, CA
  5. 1.6 8km WSW of Mountain House, CA
  6. 1.6 8km NE of Alum Rock, CA
  7. 2.1 4km WSW of Los Altos Hills, CA
  8. 2.1 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  9. 1.6 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  10. 2.6 8km WSW of Saratoga, CA
  11. 2.1 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  12. 2.9 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  13. 3.5 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  14. 1.6 4km SSW of Newark, CA
  15. 1.9 6km E of Fremont, 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 3,000 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.