QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

22km SW of New Idria, CA

· 5.8 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 41 kmSan Benito County 41 kmKings County 97 kmMerced County 102 kmSan Luis Obispo County 107 kmFresno County 120 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
5.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monterey County, 41 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1965 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 5.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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 36.2885, -120.8622. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 41 km (25 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 41 km (26 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Kings County, CA 97 km (60 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Merced County, CA 102 km (63 mi) S of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 107 km (66 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 120 km (75 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Fresno 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. 1.8 10km NW of Parkfield, CA
  2. 1.8 2km N of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 1.6 21km NW of Parkfield, CA
  4. 1.8 3km NE of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 1.6 4km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  6. 1.6 5km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 2.5 19km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 1.9 3km NE of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 2.1 12km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  10. 2.1 3km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  11. 1.6 16km NW of Parkfield, CA
  12. 2.0 2km NE of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 1.8 10km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  14. 1.7 2km E of Pinnacles, CA
  15. 2.5 2km ENE of Pinnacles, 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 2021-01-02 — it released about 16,000 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.