QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.9mw

3km N of San Lorenzo, CA

· 9.2 km deep · released about 11 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 20 kmContra Costa County 28 kmSan Mateo County 39 kmSolano County 64 kmSanta Clara County 66 kmMarin County 67 kmSanta Cruz County 78 kmSan Joaquin County 79 kmSan Francisco County 80 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 3.9 (mw)
Depth
9.2 km below the surface
Felt
12071 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Alameda County, 20 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 552 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 12071 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 22× 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 37.7062, -122.1223. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 20 km (12 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 28 km (17 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Mateo County, CA 39 km (24 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Solano County, CA 64 km (40 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Solano County
Santa Clara County, CA 66 km (41 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Marin County, CA 67 km (42 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Marin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.1 6km WNW of Dublin, CA
  2. 1.5 5km E of Vallejo, CA
  3. 2.3 8km ESE of Fremont, CA
  4. 2.9 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  5. 2.2 5km E of Vallejo, CA
  6. 1.8 1km NW of Diablo, CA
  7. 1.7 3km ESE of Pacheco, CA
  8. 1.7 6km WNW of Dublin, CA
  9. 1.6 5km E of Vallejo, CA
  10. 1.9 10km NE of Milpitas, CA
  11. 1.7 5km NW of Dublin, CA
  12. 2.6 6km S of Livermore, CA
  13. 2.4 11km NE of Milpitas, CA
  14. 1.8 5km ENE of Vallejo, CA
  15. 1.7 8km SSW 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 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 6.9 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.