QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

4km ENE of Corralitos, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 3.5 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 22 kmSanta Clara County 25 kmSan Mateo County 71 kmAlameda County 73 kmSan Benito County 74 kmStanislaus County 92 kmMonterey County 94 kmMerced County 95 kmContra Costa County 103 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
742 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 22 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1101 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 742 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.5 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 48,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.5 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.4× 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 37.0022, -121.7615. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 22 km (14 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 25 km (16 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 71 km (44 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 73 km (45 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County
San Benito County, CA 74 km (46 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Stanislaus County, CA 92 km (57 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 10km SSW of Ridgemark, CA
  2. 1.6 6km N of Tres Pinos, CA
  3. 2.0 9km SW of Tres Pinos, CA
  4. 1.8 9km SW of Tres Pinos, CA
  5. 2.3 8km E of Alum Rock, CA
  6. 2.9 2km SW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 2.0 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  8. 2.3 5km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  9. 1.8 14km E of Seven Trees, CA
  10. 2.4 14km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  11. 1.7 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  12. 1.6 4km ESE of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.8 10km ENE of Morgan Hill, CA
  14. 1.7 16km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  15. 2.2 7km S 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 4.2 on 2021-01-17 — it released about 8.5 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.