QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9md

1km E of Lopez Point, CA

· 10 km deep · released about 21 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 33 kmSan Benito County 78 kmSanta Cruz County 117 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 1.9 (md)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monterey County, 33 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1644 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 21 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 730,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 520,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 46× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 21 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 36.0207, -121.5603. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 33 km (20 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 78 km (49 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Cruz County, CA 117 km (73 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 123 km (76 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 24km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  2. 2.6 14km NNW of Lopez Point, CA
  3. 1.8 20km WSW of San Simeon, CA
  4. 1.5 11km W of San Ardo, CA
  5. 1.9 28km WSW of Lopez Point, CA
  6. 2.0 18km NW of San Simeon, CA
  7. 1.8 13km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  8. 1.7 20km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  9. 2.7 25km NW of San Simeon, CA
  10. 1.6 19km NW of San Simeon, CA
  11. 2.0 10km NNE of San Simeon, CA
  12. 2.2 18km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  13. 2.0 10km N of San Simeon, CA
  14. 1.9 19km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  15. 1.6 4km E of Point Sur, 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 2021-10-25 — it released about 14,000 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.