QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0md

25km W of Los Banos, CA

· 1.4 km deep · released about 31 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Merced County 40 kmSan Benito County 48 kmSanta Clara County 53 kmStanislaus County 59 kmSanta Cruz County 78 kmMonterey County 91 kmAlameda County 96 kmSan Joaquin County 100 kmSan Mateo 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 2.0 (md)
Depth
1.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Merced County, 40 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2015 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 31 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 480,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 340,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 31× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 31 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 37.0432, -121.1327. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Merced County, CA 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Benito County, CA 48 km (30 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 53 km (33 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 59 km (37 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Santa Cruz County, CA 78 km (48 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Monterey County, CA 91 km (56 mi) N of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 4km N of Hollister, CA
  2. 2.0 2km SSW of Hollister, CA
  3. 1.5 12km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 2.1 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 2.1 2km WNW of Newman, CA
  6. 2.8 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 2.3 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  8. 1.8 7km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  9. 3.0 3km SW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  10. 2.2 7km ENE of Aromas, CA
  11. 2.3 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.8 10km ENE of Morgan Hill, CA
  13. 1.6 17km N of Pinnacles, CA
  14. 2.4 5km ESE of Aromas, CA
  15. 2.1 5km WNW 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 11,000 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.