QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

1km S of Monterey, CA

· 3.0 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 48 kmMonterey County 65 kmSan Benito County 72 kmSanta Clara County 72 kmSan Mateo County 101 kmAlameda County 117 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
3.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 48 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2309 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 5.9 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 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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 36.5930, -121.8905. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 48 km (30 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Monterey County, CA 65 km (40 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 72 km (45 mi) W of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 72 km (45 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 101 km (63 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 117 km (73 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

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

  1. 1.6 6km NNE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 2.9 6km NE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  3. 1.9 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  4. 1.7 14km SW of Santa Cruz, CA
  5. 1.8 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  6. 2.0 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  7. 1.7 9km SSW of Carmel By The Sea, CA
  8. 2.5 2km ENE of Aromas, CA
  9. 1.7 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  10. 1.8 7km SSW of Gonzales, CA
  11. 1.6 9km NNE of Gonzales, CA
  12. 1.8 14km N of Point Sur, CA
  13. 2.3 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  14. 2.8 3km ESE of Aromas, CA
  15. 2.1 7km SSW of Gilroy, 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 5,100 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.