QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

12km ESE of Gilroy, CA

· 5.3 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 35 kmSan Benito County 51 kmSanta Cruz County 51 kmMerced County 68 kmStanislaus County 75 kmMonterey County 83 kmAlameda County 86 kmSan Mateo County 96 kmSan Joaquin County 107 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 35 km NW
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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 930,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 83× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 36.9772, -121.4337. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 35 km (22 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Benito County, CA 51 km (32 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Cruz County, CA 51 km (32 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Merced County, CA 68 km (42 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Stanislaus County, CA 75 km (47 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Monterey County, CA 83 km (51 mi) N of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 2km ENE of Aromas, CA
  2. 1.9 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  3. 1.7 9km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  4. 2.1 5km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  5. 1.7 2km E of Aromas, CA
  6. 1.8 11km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  7. 2.0 8km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 1.5 30km E of Tres Pinos, CA
  9. 1.9 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  10. 1.9 19km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  11. 3.3 14km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  12. 2.2 4km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 2.7 4km ESE of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 1.5 2km E of Aromas, CA
  15. 2.1 8km NNW of Pinnacles, 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 2019-10-15 — it released about 31,000 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.