QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.7mw

10km ENE of Morgan Hill, CA

· 4.3 km deep · released about 5 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 14 kmSanta Cruz County 44 kmAlameda County 63 kmStanislaus County 66 kmMerced County 73 kmSan Benito County 74 kmSan Mateo County 78 kmSan Joaquin County 90 kmContra Costa County 92 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 3.7 (mw)
Depth
4.3 km below the surface
Felt
2305 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 14 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1292 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 2305 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 34,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.7 about 5 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 10× 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.

Where

Epicentre 37.1605, -121.5493. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 14 km (9 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 44 km (27 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 63 km (39 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Merced County, CA 73 km (46 mi) W of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Benito County, CA 74 km (46 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito 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. 1.6 11km NE of Milpitas, CA
  2. 1.6 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  3. 1.5 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  4. 1.8 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  5. 3.2 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  6. 2.0 9km E of Alum Rock, CA
  7. 1.7 3km E of Aromas, CA
  8. 1.9 12km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  9. 1.8 12km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  10. 1.7 9km NNW of Hollister, CA
  11. 1.9 12km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  12. 1.7 5km N of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.9 6km S of Gilroy, CA
  14. 2.1 6km S of Gilroy, CA
  15. 1.8 5km SW 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 4.1 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.