QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

10km W of Willows, CA

· 25 km deep · released about 49 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Glenn County 12 kmColusa County 38 kmLake County 59 kmButte County 63 kmTehama County 68 kmSutter County 75 kmYuba County 88 kmMendocino County 97 kmYolo County 100 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
25 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Glenn County, 12 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1616 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 49 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 310,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 220,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 49 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 39.5165, -122.3132. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Glenn County, CA 12 km (8 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Colusa County, CA 38 km (24 mi) N of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Lake County, CA 59 km (36 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Lake County
Butte County, CA 63 km (39 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Butte County
Tehama County, CA 68 km (42 mi) S of here earthquakes near Tehama County
Sutter County, CA 75 km (47 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Sutter County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 9 km WSW of Williams, CA
  2. 1.7 18 km NE of Upper Lake, CA
  3. 1.7 14 km ESE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  4. 1.8 18 km SE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  5. 2.5 18 km NNE of Upper Lake, CA
  6. 1.7 20 km NE of Upper Lake, CA
  7. 2.4 18 km E of Willows, CA
  8. 1.6 17 km ESE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  9. 2.6 15 km ENE of Willows, CA
  10. 2.1 12km W of Williams, CA
  11. 2.3 13km WSW of Williams, CA
  12. 2.1 18km E of Willows, CA
  13. 2.2 18km E of Willows, CA
  14. 1.6 18km NE of Upper Lake, CA
  15. 1.9 19km SE of Lake Pillsbury, 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 5.1 on 2016-08-10 — it released about 27,000 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.