Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 4.0mw
5km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
- When
- Magnitude
- M 4.0 (mw)
- Depth
- 1.6 km below the surface
- Felt
- 38 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
- Measured shaking
- intensity V (ShakeMap)
- USGS impact alert
- green
- Tsunami
- USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
- Nearest
- San Benito County, 7 km N
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1174 days ago
This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 38 people have reported feeling it to USGS.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 15 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 11,000× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 4.0 about 15 tons of TNT
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 32× more
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 36.5490, -121.0965. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Benito County, CA | 7 km (4 mi) | S of here | earthquakes near San Benito County |
| Monterey County, CA | 40 km (25 mi) | NNE of here | earthquakes near Monterey County |
| Merced County, CA | 79 km (49 mi) | SSW of here | earthquakes near Merced County |
| Santa Clara County, CA | 92 km (57 mi) | SE of here | earthquakes near Santa Clara County |
| Santa Cruz County, CA | 96 km (60 mi) | ESE of here | earthquakes near Santa Cruz County |
| Stanislaus County, CA | 113 km (70 mi) | S of here | earthquakes near Stanislaus County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
57 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
- 2.5 3km W of Hollister, CA
- 1.9 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
- 1.6 12km SE of Pinnacles, CA
- 1.8 21km SW of Los Banos, CA
- 2.1 14km W of New Idria, CA
- 1.8 5km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
- 3.3 21km SW of Los Banos, CA
- 1.6 22km SW of Los Banos, CA
- 2.4 5km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
- 1.8 5km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
- 1.5 5km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
- 1.6 5km NE of Pinnacles, CA
- 2.0 22km NE of San Lucas, CA
- 1.9 5km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
- 1.6 23km WSW of New Idria, 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 12 times the energy of this one.
From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.
On USGS
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.