QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8md

3km S of Half Moon Bay, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 530 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Mateo County 5 kmAlameda County 51 kmSanta Cruz County 60 kmSan Francisco County 62 kmContra Costa County 68 kmSanta Clara County 69 kmMarin County 74 kmSolano County 101 kmSan Joaquin County 115 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 2.8 (md)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
717 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
San Mateo County, 5 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 423 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 717 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 530 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 29,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 20,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.8× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 530 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 37.4402, -122.4242. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Mateo County, CA 5 km (3 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 51 km (31 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 60 km (37 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Francisco County, CA 62 km (39 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Francisco County
Contra Costa County, CA 68 km (42 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Santa Clara County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 4km SW of San Bruno, CA
  2. 2.2 4km SW of San Bruno, CA
  3. 2.3 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  4. 2.0 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  5. 2.6 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  6. 2.6 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  7. 3.4 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  8. 1.7 10km WNW of San Francisco Zoo, CA
  9. 1.6 1km SSE of Portola Valley, CA
  10. 1.8 3km NNW of Emeryville, CA
  11. 1.6 2km S of Oakland, CA
  12. 1.9 3km E of Hayward, CA
  13. 2.0 2km ESE of Berkeley, CA
  14. 1.5 6km WNW of Sunol, CA
  15. 2.2 4km WSW of Colma, 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 4.4 on 2018-01-04 — it released about 210 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.