QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

3km W of Fruitdale, CA

· 5.3 km deep · released about 8.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 27 kmSanta Cruz County 34 kmSan Mateo County 37 kmAlameda County 37 kmContra Costa County 67 kmStanislaus County 90 kmSan Joaquin County 93 kmSan Francisco County 104 kmSolano County 106 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 27 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1811 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 8.7 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 8.7 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 37.3143, -121.9722. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 27 km (17 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 34 km (21 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 37 km (23 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 37 km (23 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 67 km (42 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Stanislaus County, CA 90 km (56 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.2 2km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  2. 2.7 16km E of Seven Trees, CA
  3. 3.1 2km ENE of San Leandro, CA
  4. 2.0 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  5. 1.9 16km E of Seven Trees, CA
  6. 1.6 10km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA
  7. 1.9 6km WNW of Dublin, CA
  8. 2.2 5km WNW of Dublin, CA
  9. 1.9 8km E of Fremont, CA
  10. 1.5 2km NE of Union City, CA
  11. 1.7 11km NE of Milpitas, CA
  12. 1.5 10km ENE of Milpitas, CA
  13. 2.1 9km E of Alum Rock, CA
  14. 2.3 4km NE of Fairview, CA
  15. 1.8 5km NNE of Alum Rock, 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 4.1 on 2017-10-10 — it released about 4,700 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.