QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8mw

16km WNW of Lake Pillsbury, CA

· 5.6 km deep · released about 6.6 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mendocino County 29 kmLake County 53 kmGlenn County 63 kmColusa County 83 kmTehama County 104 kmSonoma County 108 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 3.8 (mw)
Depth
5.6 km below the surface
Felt
54 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Mendocino County, 29 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1345 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 54 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 6.6 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 26,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 810× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 6.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 14× 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 39.4828, -123.1165. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mendocino County, CA 29 km (18 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Mendocino County
Lake County, CA 53 km (33 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lake County
Glenn County, CA 63 km (39 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Colusa County, CA 83 km (51 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Tehama County, CA 104 km (65 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Tehama County
Sonoma County, CA 108 km (67 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sonoma County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 8km SSE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  2. 1.6 9km ESE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  3. 1.8 13km W of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  4. 2.1 12km NW of Alder Springs, CA
  5. 1.8 24km SE of Covelo, CA
  6. 1.7 6km ESE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  7. 2.4 11km NW of Alder Springs, CA
  8. 1.9 14km SE of Covelo, CA
  9. 1.9 14km SE of Covelo, CA
  10. 1.9 9km ESE of Lake Pillsbury, CA
  11. 1.5 11km NE of Talmage, CA
  12. 2.1 4km ENE of Talmage, CA
  13. 1.5 4km WNW of Redwood Valley, CA
  14. 2.0 9km S of Laytonville, CA
  15. 1.5 7km ESE of Willits, 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 5.1 on 2016-08-10 — it released about 99 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.