QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

28km NW of Bridgeport, CA

· 5.4 km deep · released about 3.8 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 36 kmDouglas County 55 kmTuolumne County 62 kmLyon County 71 kmMono County 77 kmCarson City 85 kmMineral County 92 kmCalaveras County 98 kmEl Dorado 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
5.4 km below the surface
Felt
50 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Alpine County, 36 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1828 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 50 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 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 45,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.9× 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 38.4242, -119.4703. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 36 km (22 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 55 km (34 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Tuolumne County, CA 62 km (39 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Lyon County, NV 71 km (44 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Mono County, CA 77 km (48 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Mono County
Carson City, NV 85 km (53 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 30km SE of Markleeville, CA
  2. 2.1 30km SE of Markleeville, CA
  3. 2.1 32km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  4. 1.6 30km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  5. 1.5 31km ENE of Dardanelle, CA
  6. 1.7 31km NE of Dardanelle, CA
  7. 2.1 33km SE of Markleeville, CA
  8. 2.4 28km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  9. 1.8 32km SE of Markleeville, CA
  10. 1.5 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  11. 1.8 29km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  12. 1.8 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  13. 1.8 28km NNW of Bridgeport, CA
  14. 2.2 29km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  15. 1.7 32km SSW of Smith Valley, NV

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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 4,000 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.