QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

32km SSW of Smith Valley, NV

· 0.3 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 31 kmDouglas County 45 kmLyon County 61 kmTuolumne County 70 kmCarson City 75 kmMono County 84 kmMineral County 91 kmEl Dorado County 97 kmCalaveras 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
0.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 31 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1885 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 11 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 1,400,000× 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 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 38.5165, -119.4668. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 31 km (19 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 45 km (28 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 61 km (38 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Tuolumne County, CA 70 km (44 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Carson City, NV 75 km (47 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Mono County, CA 84 km (52 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Mono County

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. 1.8 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  2. 2.5 6 km WSW of Walker, California
  3. 2.7 29km SE of Markleeville, CA
  4. 1.5 32km SE of Markleeville, CA
  5. 1.8 31km ENE of Dardanelle, CA
  6. 1.6 27km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  7. 1.6 27km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  8. 2.0 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  9. 2.5 32km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  10. 1.9 29km SE of Markleeville, CA
  11. 1.5 30km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  12. 1.8 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  13. 1.8 26km ENE of Dardanelle, CA
  14. 2.2 25km ENE of Dardanelle, CA
  15. 1.8 29km 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 2,800,000 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.