QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

10km ESE of Loyalton, CA

· -1.2 km deep · released about 1,400 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 33 kmStorey County 57 kmCarson City 63 kmNevada County 66 kmPlumas County 71 kmPlacer County 81 kmDouglas County 93 kmEl Dorado County 100 kmLyon County 106 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
-1.2 km below the surface
Felt
16 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Sierra County, 33 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1324 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 16 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,400 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 230,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 10,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,400 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.5× 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 39.6310, -120.1395. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 33 km (21 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Storey County, NV 57 km (35 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 63 km (39 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Nevada County, CA 66 km (41 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Plumas County, CA 71 km (44 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Placer County, CA 81 km (50 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Placer 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.

  1. 1.6 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  2. 1.6 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  3. 1.6 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  4. 2.4 9km NNW of Loyalton, CA
  5. 2.3 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  6. 1.6 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  7. 1.6 6 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  8. 2.0 Nevada
  9. 2.6 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  10. 2.0 6 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  11. 1.8 6 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  12. 2.0 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  13. 1.7 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  14. 2.9 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  15. 1.6 9 km SSE of Sierraville, California

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 2021-05-07 — it released about 200 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.