QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

5km WSW of Markleeville, CA

· -1.2 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 6 kmDouglas County 34 kmCarson City 55 kmEl Dorado County 61 kmLyon County 69 kmTuolumne County 72 kmAmador County 74 kmCalaveras County 81 kmPlacer County 88 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
-1.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 6 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1381 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 10 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 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 95× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 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 38.6635, -119.8488. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 6 km (4 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 34 km (21 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Carson City, NV 55 km (34 mi) S of here earthquakes near Carson City
El Dorado County, CA 61 km (38 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near El Dorado County
Lyon County, NV 69 km (43 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Tuolumne County, CA 72 km (45 mi) N of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 2 km S of Coleville, California
  2. 1.6 0 km SSE of Topaz Lake, Nevada
  3. 1.5 6 km S of Gardnerville Ranchos, Nevada
  4. 2.2 6km WSW of Walker, CA
  5. 1.6 7 km S of Carter Springs, Nevada
  6. 1.6 8km SSW of Markleeville, CA
  7. 2.5 17km NW of Walker, CA
  8. 1.5 4 km W of Walker, California
  9. 2.4 5km W of Walker, CA
  10. 2.3 13km SW of Walker, CA
  11. 1.6 3 km NNE of Carter Springs, Nevada
  12. 2.2 7km SSE of Markleeville, CA
  13. 2.6 6km SSE of Markleeville, CA
  14. 3.1 6km SSE of Markleeville, CA
  15. 2.4 16km NW of Walker, 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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 3,000,000 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.