QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

3km NE of Pinnacles, CA

· 9.1 km deep · released about 4.1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 7 kmMonterey County 39 kmMerced County 80 kmSanta Clara County 91 kmSanta Cruz County 95 kmStanislaus County 113 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
9.1 km below the surface
Felt
115 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
San Benito County, 7 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1877 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 115 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 4.1 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 42,000× 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 1,300× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 4.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 8.5× 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 36.5502, -121.1142. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 7 km (5 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 39 km (24 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 80 km (50 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Santa Clara County, CA 91 km (56 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 95 km (59 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Stanislaus County, CA 113 km (70 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.8 7km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 2.2 8km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 2.6 7km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 1.7 10km N of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 1.7 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  6. 2.2 2km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 1.9 11km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 2.8 12km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 2.1 10km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  10. 2.2 5km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  11. 1.7 12km NE of Hollister, CA
  12. 2.6 5km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 2.3 6km E of New Idria, CA
  14. 2.2 23km SW of New Idria, CA
  15. 1.6 5km 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 4.7 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 43 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.