QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

2km ESE of Berkeley, CA

· 9.1 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 27 kmAlameda County 38 kmMarin County 48 kmSan Mateo County 51 kmSolano County 52 kmSan Francisco County 71 kmNapa County 72 kmSan Joaquin County 86 kmSanta Clara County 87 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
9.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 27 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1955 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 10 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 92× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 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 37.8650, -122.2480. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 27 km (17 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Alameda County, CA 38 km (24 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Marin County, CA 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Marin County
San Mateo County, CA 51 km (32 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Solano County, CA 52 km (32 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Francisco County, CA 71 km (44 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Francisco County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 5km NW of Dublin, CA
  2. 2.6 6km S of Livermore, CA
  3. 1.8 8km NNE of Black Point-Green Point, CA
  4. 1.8 5km ENE of Vallejo, CA
  5. 1.7 8km SSW of Livermore, CA
  6. 1.8 3km SW of Alamo, CA
  7. 1.9 3km SW of Clayton, CA
  8. 1.8 2km NW of Pacifica, CA
  9. 1.6 4km SW of Colma, CA
  10. 1.8 1km ENE of Alamo, CA
  11. 1.7 5km WNW of Dublin, CA
  12. 1.5 5km E of Fremont, CA
  13. 1.6 1km NE of Berkeley, CA
  14. 2.0 1km NNW of Pleasant Hill, CA
  15. 1.5 2km ESE of Berkeley, 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 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 14,000 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.