QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

15km N of Morgan Hill, CA

· 7.7 km deep · released about 3.9 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 7 kmSanta Cruz County 43 kmAlameda County 49 kmStanislaus County 65 kmSan Mateo County 67 kmContra Costa County 78 kmSan Joaquin County 81 kmMerced County 82 kmSan Benito County 88 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
7.7 km below the surface
Felt
2036 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 7 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1155 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 2036 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 43,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 8.2× 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 37.2670, -121.6395. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 7 km (4 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 43 km (27 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 49 km (30 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 65 km (40 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 67 km (41 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 78 km (48 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa 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. 1.8 8km SW of Loyola, CA
  2. 1.7 9km NNE of Alum Rock, CA
  3. 1.7 19km SE of Livermore, CA
  4. 2.0 9km NE of Milpitas, CA
  5. 1.7 9km N of Boulder Creek, CA
  6. 1.5 8km ENE of Gilroy, CA
  7. 2.4 9km NE of San Martin, CA
  8. 1.7 2km ENE of Aromas, CA
  9. 1.7 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  10. 1.8 16km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  11. 2.1 14km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  12. 1.7 14km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  13. 1.7 12km NE of Hollister, CA
  14. 2.5 20km SE of Livermore, CA
  15. 2.8 20km SE of Livermore, 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 4.2 on 2021-01-17 — it released about 7.7 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.