QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

16km NE of Willow Creek, CA

· 33 km deep · released about 3.1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 51 kmTrinity County 55 kmDel Norte County 88 kmSiskiyou County 101 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
33 km below the surface
Felt
7 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity II (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Humboldt County, 51 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1569 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 7 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 55,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 3.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 6.5× 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 41.0453, -123.5105. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 51 km (32 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 55 km (34 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Del Norte County, CA 88 km (54 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Del Norte County
Siskiyou County, CA 101 km (63 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Siskiyou County
Tehama County, CA 149 km (92 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Tehama County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 5km N of Willow Creek, CA
  2. 2.1 29km E of Willow Creek, CA
  3. 4.3 16km WSW of Weitchpec, CA
  4. 3.7 16km WSW of Weitchpec, CA
  5. 2.7 21km ESE of Weitchpec, CA
  6. 3.6 6km E of McKinleyville, CA
  7. 2.7 21km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  8. 2.8 20km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  9. 2.5 24km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  10. 2.1 28km WNW of Hayfork, CA
  11. 2.3 15km E of Willow Creek, CA
  12. 2.4 17km ENE of Willow Creek, CA
  13. 1.8 20km SSE of Willow Creek, CA
  14. 2.1 25km WNW of Weaverville, CA
  15. 2.0 7km W of Willow Creek, 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 4.8 on 2016-07-21 — it released about 80 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.