QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

26km SSW of Smith Valley, NV

· 0.0 km deep · released about 49 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 34 kmDouglas County 42 kmLyon County 55 kmCarson City 72 kmTuolumne County 77 kmMono County 86 kmMineral County 87 kmStorey County 98 kmEl Dorado County 100 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 34 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1857 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 49 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 310,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 220,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 49 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 38.5608, -119.4183. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 34 km (21 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 55 km (34 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 77 km (48 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Mono County, CA 86 km (53 mi) NNW 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. 2.7 26km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  2. 2.2 26km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  3. 2.0 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  4. 1.8 26km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  5. 2.2 26km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  6. 1.7 25km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  7. 2.1 25km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  8. 2.1 29km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  9. 2.2 25km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  10. 2.0 28km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  11. 2.3 6 km ENE of Walker, California
  12. 3.0 25km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  13. 2.1 7 km E of Coleville, California
  14. 1.8 25km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  15. 1.9 26km 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 620,000 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.