QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

10km E of Gilroy, CA

· 8.3 km deep · released about 1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 32 kmSanta Cruz County 49 kmSan Benito County 55 kmMerced County 69 kmStanislaus County 74 kmAlameda County 82 kmMonterey County 86 kmSan Mateo County 93 kmSan Joaquin County 105 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
8.3 km below the surface
Felt
34 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 32 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1934 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 34 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 170,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.1× 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 37.0035, -121.4615. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 32 km (20 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 49 km (30 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Benito County, CA 55 km (34 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Merced County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Stanislaus County, CA 74 km (46 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Alameda County, CA 82 km (51 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 11km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  2. 1.6 3km ESE of Aromas, CA
  3. 2.4 13km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 1.6 25km SSW of Los Banos, CA
  5. 2.0 4km N of Hollister, CA
  6. 2.0 2km SSW of Hollister, CA
  7. 1.5 12km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 1.5 9km NNE of Gonzales, CA
  9. 2.1 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  10. 2.5 15km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  11. 3.6 15km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  12. 2.8 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 2.3 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  14. 1.8 7km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  15. 3.0 3km SW of San Juan Bautista, 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 4.7 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 170 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.