QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

3km SSE of Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley, CA

· 9.8 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 19 kmSanta Clara County 34 kmSan Mateo County 72 kmSan Benito County 75 kmAlameda County 80 kmMonterey County 89 kmStanislaus County 101 kmMerced County 102 kmContra Costa County 110 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
9.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 19 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1405 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 930,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 83× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 36.9347, -121.8210. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 19 km (12 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 34 km (21 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 72 km (45 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Benito County, CA 75 km (46 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Alameda County, CA 80 km (49 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Monterey County, CA 89 km (56 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 5km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 2.5 5km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  3. 3.2 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  4. 1.8 4km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  5. 3.6 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 2.3 4km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 2.0 8km W of Saratoga, CA
  8. 1.9 9km NE of Gilroy, CA
  9. 1.8 4km SSW of Cupertino, CA
  10. 2.1 12km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA
  11. 2.2 4km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.7 8km ESE of Prunedale, CA
  13. 3.0 3km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  14. 2.1 3km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  15. 2.3 15km N 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 5.1 on 2022-10-25 — it released about 100,000 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.