QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

4km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA

· 6.8 km deep · released about 650 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 46 kmSanta Clara County 47 kmSan Benito County 47 kmMonterey County 67 kmMerced County 85 kmStanislaus County 96 kmAlameda County 98 kmSan Mateo 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
6.8 km below the surface
Felt
20 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 46 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1737 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 20 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 650 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 23,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.5× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 650 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 36.8147, -121.5498. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 46 km (29 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 47 km (29 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Benito County, CA 47 km (29 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 67 km (42 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 85 km (53 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Stanislaus County, CA 96 km (60 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 3km N of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 2.3 3km N of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 2.0 2km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 2.2 11km NW of Morgan Hill, CA
  5. 2.1 12km ENE of Morgan Hill, CA
  6. 1.5 6km NE of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 2.2 5km SW of Tres Pinos, CA
  8. 1.5 9km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.9 13km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  10. 2.3 11km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 2.1 5km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.5 11km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 2.3 15km SE of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 2.3 10km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  15. 1.6 8km ENE of Gilroy, 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 4.7 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 540 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.