QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

14km SE of Livermore, CA

· 4.0 km deep · released about 750 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 22 kmSanta Clara County 40 kmContra Costa County 45 kmSan Joaquin County 53 kmStanislaus County 59 kmSan Mateo County 64 kmSanta Cruz County 70 kmSolano County 80 kmMerced County 95 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
4.0 km below the surface
Felt
70 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Alameda County, 22 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1851 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 70 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 750 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 20,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 14,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.3× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 750 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 37.5820, -121.6752. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 22 km (14 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Clara County, CA 40 km (25 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Contra Costa County, CA 45 km (28 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Joaquin County, CA 53 km (33 mi) SW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Stanislaus County, CA 59 km (37 mi) W of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 64 km (40 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 3km WNW of Castro Valley, CA
  2. 2.7 6km SSW of San Ramon, CA
  3. 3.9 3km N of San Lorenzo, CA
  4. 1.7 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  5. 1.8 16km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  6. 2.1 14km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  7. 1.7 14km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  8. 2.5 20km SE of Livermore, CA
  9. 2.8 20km SE of Livermore, CA
  10. 2.1 15km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  11. 1.8 6km E of Fremont, CA
  12. 2.6 2km ENE of Hayward, CA
  13. 2.4 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  14. 1.9 12km NE of Milpitas, CA
  15. 1.6 3km SSW of Clayton, 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 4.3 on 2019-07-16 — it released about 120 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.