QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

9km E of Alum Rock, CA

· 7.1 km deep · released about 3.7 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 17 kmAlameda County 35 kmSanta Cruz County 47 kmSan Mateo County 57 kmContra Costa County 64 kmStanislaus County 67 kmSan Joaquin County 74 kmMerced County 91 kmSolano County 101 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
7.1 km below the surface
Felt
1401 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 17 km S
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. 1401 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.7 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 46,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.7× 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 37.3722, -121.7260. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 17 km (11 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 35 km (22 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 47 km (29 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 57 km (36 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 64 km (40 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Stanislaus County, CA 67 km (42 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 6km S of Livermore, CA
  2. 2.4 11km NE of Milpitas, CA
  3. 1.9 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  4. 1.8 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  5. 1.7 8km SSW of Livermore, CA
  6. 1.8 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  7. 2.1 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  8. 1.7 5km WNW of Dublin, CA
  9. 1.5 5km E of Fremont, CA
  10. 1.6 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  11. 2.1 8km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  12. 2.1 15km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  13. 2.4 5km SE of Portola Valley, CA
  14. 2.2 2km E of Saratoga, CA
  15. 1.6 9km WSW of Mountain House, 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 12 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.