QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

10km NE of San Martin, CA

· 5.8 km deep · released about 7.8 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 15 kmSanta Cruz County 44 kmAlameda County 64 kmStanislaus County 66 kmSan Benito County 72 kmMerced County 72 kmSan Mateo County 79 kmSan Joaquin County 90 kmContra Costa County 93 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
5.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 15 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1552 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 7.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 120× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.8 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 37.1507, -121.5392. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 15 km (10 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 44 km (28 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 64 km (40 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Stanislaus County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Benito County, CA 72 km (45 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Merced County, CA 72 km (45 mi) W of here earthquakes near Merced County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 6km SW of Gilroy, CA
  2. 3.3 7km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  3. 2.5 3km W of Hollister, CA
  4. 1.9 10km E of Alum Rock, CA
  5. 2.8 3km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 2.7 9km ENE of San Martin, CA
  7. 1.6 5km NNW of Aromas, CA
  8. 2.2 6km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  9. 1.6 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  10. 2.2 2km W of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 2.5 3km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.7 2km ENE of Aromas, CA
  13. 1.6 6km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  14. 1.7 28km ENE of Alum Rock, CA
  15. 1.8 9km ENE of Morgan Hill, 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 4.2 on 2021-01-17 — it released about 7,700 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.