QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

27km SSW of Smith Valley, NV

· -1.5 km deep · released about 1,200 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 33 kmDouglas County 42 kmLyon County 56 kmCarson City 72 kmTuolumne County 75 kmMono County 86 kmMineral County 88 kmStorey County 99 kmEl Dorado County 99 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
-1.5 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Alpine County, 33 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1790 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,200 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 12,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 8,800× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,200 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.3× 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 38.5533, -119.4293. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 33 km (20 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 42 km (26 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 56 km (35 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Carson City, NV 72 km (45 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Tuolumne County, CA 75 km (47 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Mono County, CA 86 km (53 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 30km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  2. 2.9 30km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  3. 1.8 28km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  4. 1.8 31km NW of Bridgeport, CA
  5. 1.6 31km SE of Markleeville, CA
  6. 2.1 30km SE of Markleeville, CA
  7. 1.8 27km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  8. 2.5 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  9. 2.2 25km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  10. 2.2 29km SE of Markleeville, CA
  11. 1.7 33km ENE of Dardanelle, CA
  12. 1.8 30km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  13. 2.4 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  14. 1.6 33km ENE of Dardanelle, CA
  15. 3.0 30km 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 25,000 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.