QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

21km ESE of Rio Dell, CA

· 24 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 31 kmTrinity County 69 kmMendocino 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
24 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Humboldt County, 31 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2252 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 40.4298, -123.8790. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 31 km (19 mi) S of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Mendocino County, CA 117 km (73 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Mendocino County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 4.0 13km NNE of Petrolia, CA
  2. 2.0 18km SE of Petrolia, CA
  3. 2.0 5km NNE of Petrolia, CA
  4. 2.7 8km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  5. 2.9 4km NNW of Fortuna, CA
  6. 1.8 12km SSW of Ferndale, CA
  7. 1.8 22km ESE of Rio Dell, CA
  8. 1.6 2km N of Redway, CA
  9. 1.7 31km ENE of Hydesville, CA
  10. 2.4 11km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  11. 3.5 12km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  12. 1.7 24km ENE of Hydesville, CA
  13. 2.0 6km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  14. 1.7 2km SW of Humboldt Hill, CA
  15. 2.6 9km ENE of Hydesville, 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 5.6 on 2019-06-23 — it released about 930,000 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.