QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

1km ENE of El Cerrito, CA

· 5.5 km deep · released about 3.4 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 31 kmMarin County 42 kmAlameda County 46 kmSolano County 50 kmSan Mateo County 56 kmNapa County 66 kmSan Francisco County 67 kmSonoma County 87 kmSan Joaquin County 91 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
5.5 km below the surface
Felt
9395 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 31 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 178 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 9395 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.4 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 50,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,200× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.4 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.2× 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 37.9182, -122.3040. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 31 km (19 mi) W of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Marin County, CA 42 km (26 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Marin County
Alameda County, CA 46 km (28 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Solano County, CA 50 km (31 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Mateo County, CA 56 km (35 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Napa County, CA 66 km (41 mi) S of here earthquakes near Napa County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 3km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  2. 3.0 3km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  3. 2.7 3km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  4. 3.0 3km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  5. 1.6 4km SW of San Bruno, CA
  6. 2.2 4km SW of San Bruno, CA
  7. 2.3 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  8. 2.0 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  9. 2.6 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  10. 2.6 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  11. 3.4 1km ENE of Pacifica, CA
  12. 2.3 3km NNW of Lafayette, CA
  13. 2.1 0km SSW of Crockett, CA
  14. 1.7 10km WNW of San Francisco Zoo, CA
  15. 1.9 3km W of Orinda, 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 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 22 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.