QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

10km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA

· 3.3 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 8 kmSanta Cruz County 42 kmAlameda County 56 kmStanislaus County 66 kmSan Mateo County 72 kmMerced County 78 kmSan Benito County 80 kmContra Costa County 85 kmSan Joaquin County 86 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
3.3 km below the surface
Felt
1 report
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 8 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1704 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 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 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 37.2057, -121.5978. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 8 km (5 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 42 km (26 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 56 km (35 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Mateo County, CA 72 km (45 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Merced County, CA 78 km (48 mi) W of here earthquakes near Merced County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 2km WSW of Ridgemark, CA
  2. 1.6 5km E of Fremont, CA
  3. 2.8 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  4. 2.6 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  5. 2.0 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 3.3 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 1.6 9km ENE of Gilroy, CA
  8. 1.8 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  9. 1.6 8km ENE of Gilroy, CA
  10. 2.2 8km ENE of Gilroy, CA
  11. 1.7 4km NNW of Hollister, CA
  12. 2.3 5km NNE of Alum Rock, CA
  13. 2.2 5km ESE of Aromas, CA
  14. 3.6 4km ENE of Corralitos, CA
  15. 1.6 1km WNW of San Juan Bautista, 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 4.2 on 2021-01-17 — it released about 7,900 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.