QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

17km E of Rio Dell, CA

· 20 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 26 kmTrinity County 70 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
20 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Humboldt County, 26 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1396 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 5.7 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 40.4735, -123.9133. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 26 km (16 mi) S of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 70 km (44 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Mendocino County, CA 123 km (76 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Mendocino County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.8 15km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  2. 2.8 20km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  3. 1.8 9km SW of Ferndale, CA
  4. 2.4 9km SW of Ferndale, CA
  5. 2.4 8km SW of Ferndale, CA
  6. 2.3 5km SW of Ferndale, CA
  7. 2.0 5km SE of Ferndale, CA
  8. 2.0 11km SW of Ferndale, CA
  9. 2.1 5km SW of Ferndale, CA
  10. 2.4 3km SSE of Fortuna, CA
  11. 2.8 12km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  12. 2.3 6km SE of Ferndale, CA
  13. 2.0 7km NNE of Hydesville, CA
  14. 2.0 9km SW of Ferndale, CA
  15. 3.0 7km SW of Ferndale, 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 6.2 on 2021-12-20 — it released about 10,000,000 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.