QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3md

10km WNW of Little Grass Valley, CA

· 0.0 km deep · released about 94 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Plumas County 36 kmButte County 45 kmSierra County 52 kmNevada County 56 kmYuba County 57 kmPlacer County 82 kmSutter County 95 kmTehama County 106 kmGlenn County 113 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 2.3 (md)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Plumas County, 36 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1521 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 94 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 160,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 110,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 10× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 94 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 39.7422, -121.0890. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Plumas County, CA 36 km (22 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Butte County, CA 45 km (28 mi) E of here earthquakes near Butte County
Sierra County, CA 52 km (32 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Nevada County, CA 56 km (35 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Yuba County, CA 57 km (35 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Placer County, CA 82 km (51 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Placer County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 10 km SW of Almanor, CA
  2. 2.5 2 km NNE of Canyondam, CA
  3. 1.9 5 km S of Prattville, California
  4. 1.5 7 km SSE of Canyondam, California
  5. 2.5 2km S of Canyondam, CA
  6. 1.6 Northern California
  7. 2.3 1km SSE of Canyondam, CA
  8. 2.4 1km S of Canyondam, CA
  9. 2.9 2km SSE of Canyondam, CA
  10. 2.5 3km SSE of Prattville, CA
  11. 2.2 3km NW of Canyondam, CA
  12. 2.3 2km N of Canyondam, CA
  13. 2.1 1km NE of Canyondam, CA
  14. 2.7 3km NW of Canyondam, CA
  15. 2.2 4km WNW of Canyondam, 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 2022-07-23 — it released about 730 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.