Earthquake near San Jose, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 55 km (34 mi) from the epicentre. In San Jose, 14 km away, the estimate is intensity III (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.

Likely felt in: Milpitas 13 km, intensity III · San Jose 14 km, intensity III · Santa Clara 18 km, intensity III · Campbell 22 km, intensity III · Sunnyvale 25 km, intensity II · Fremont 25 km, intensity II · Cupertino 26 km, intensity II · Newark 28 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 100,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,600× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3,200× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.7 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 3.5× more

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 4.3 on 2019-07-16 — about 27 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 20 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 The 1989 Loma Prieta, California Earthquake · 43 km SSW of this epicentre Oct 18, 1989
2. 6.5 Near Morgan Hill, California · 35 km SSE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1911
3. 6.2 Near San Jose, California · 13 km SSW of this epicentre Aug 3, 1903
4. 6.2 The 1984 Morgan Hill, California Earthquake · 14 km SSE of this epicentre Apr 24, 1984
5. 6.1 Near San Jose, California · 24 km S of this epicentre Jun 11, 1903

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 37.4140, -121.7625. 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. 2.2 2km SW of Lexington Hills, CA 19:05 UTC
2. 2.1 8km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:05 UTC
3. 2.1 10km ESE of Livermore, CA 11:02 UTC
4. 1.5 19km SSE of Livermore, CA 14:51 UTC
5. 1.6 8km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:02 UTC
6. 2.0 8km WSW of Mountain House, CA 00:00 UTC
7. 1.5 10km NE of Milpitas, CA 09:48 UTC
8. 1.5 12km ESE of Alum Rock, CA 20:44 UTC
9. 3.2 3km ESE of San Leandro, CA 18:43 UTC
10. 2.6 3km ESE of San Leandro, CA 18:36 UTC
11. 1.7 9km WSW of Mountain House, CA 23:58 UTC
12. 1.7 9km WSW of Mountain House, CA 23:59 UTC
13. 2.0 10km NE of Milpitas, CA 07:48 UTC
14. 2.3 10km NE of Milpitas, CA 07:47 UTC
15. 1.8 10km E of Alum Rock, CA 10:26 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:42 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.