QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

14km SSW of Loyalton, CA

· 6.0 km deep · released about 1,500 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 18 kmNevada County 49 kmPlumas County 65 kmPlacer County 66 kmCarson City 67 kmStorey County 69 kmEl Dorado County 89 kmYuba County 94 kmDouglas County 95 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
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
16 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Sierra County, 18 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1723 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 16 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,500 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 6.7 230,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 10,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,500 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.6× 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 39.5632, -120.3128. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 18 km (11 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Nevada County, CA 49 km (31 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Plumas County, CA 65 km (40 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Placer County, CA 66 km (41 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Placer County
Carson City, NV 67 km (41 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Storey County, NV 69 km (43 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Storey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 5 km NNW of Plumas Eureka (historical), California
  2. 1.8 3km ENE of Dollar Point, CA
  3. 2.3 3km ENE of Dollar Point, CA
  4. 2.0 12km NW of Truckee, CA
  5. 1.6 3km ENE of Dollar Point, CA
  6. 2.2 4km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  7. 1.6 3km ENE of Dollar Point, CA
  8. 3.1 10km ESE of Loyalton, CA
  9. 2.8 15km WSW of Loyalton, CA
  10. 1.7 4 km WNW of Sierra City, California
  11. 2.1 4 km SSE of Cold Springs, Nevada
  12. 1.5 4 km SE of Cold Springs, Nevada
  13. 1.5 3 km WNW of Sierra City, California
  14. 2.2 16km WSW of Loyalton, CA
  15. 2.1 17km SSW of Loyalton, 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 2021-05-07 — it released about 190 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.