QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

2km NE of San Ramon, CA

· 20 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 14 kmAlameda County 17 kmSolano County 53 kmSan Mateo County 55 kmSan Joaquin County 63 kmSanta Clara County 68 kmMarin County 75 kmNapa County 86 kmSanta Cruz County 87 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
20 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 14 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1558 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 5.9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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 37.7922, -121.9627. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 14 km (9 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Alameda County, CA 17 km (10 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Solano County, CA 53 km (33 mi) S of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Mateo County, CA 55 km (34 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Joaquin County, CA 63 km (39 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Santa Clara County, CA 68 km (42 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 2km ENE of Berkeley, CA
  2. 1.6 6km SSW of Suisun City, CA
  3. 1.8 2km SE of Pacheco, CA
  4. 1.7 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  5. 2.0 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  6. 1.7 5km E of Vallejo, CA
  7. 2.4 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  8. 2.9 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  9. 2.9 2km N of Piedmont, CA
  10. 1.9 3km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  11. 1.8 2km WNW of Los Altos Hills, CA
  12. 1.5 4km S of Sunol, CA
  13. 1.5 7km E of Santa Venetia, CA
  14. 1.7 6km NW of Bay Point, CA
  15. 1.9 3km E of Oakland, 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 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 25,000 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.