QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0md

21km WSW of Los Banos, CA

· 5.5 km deep · released about 30 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Merced County 39 kmSan Benito County 39 kmSanta Clara County 63 kmStanislaus County 67 kmMonterey County 84 kmSanta Cruz County 84 kmAlameda County 107 kmSan Joaquin County 109 kmMadera County 119 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 2.0 (md)
Depth
5.5 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Merced County, 39 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1359 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 30 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 32× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 30 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 36.9655, -121.0595. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Merced County, CA 39 km (24 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Benito County, CA 39 km (24 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 63 km (39 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 67 km (41 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Monterey County, CA 84 km (52 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Santa Cruz County, CA 84 km (52 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz 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. 2.2 9km ENE of San Martin, CA
  2. 1.8 9km ENE of San Martin, CA
  3. 3.6 9km ENE of San Martin, CA
  4. 1.8 8km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 2.1 5km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 2.1 5km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 1.9 5km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  8. 1.7 2km N of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.5 9km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  10. 1.6 1km W of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 1.6 8km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.8 8km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 1.6 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  14. 2.2 10km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  15. 2.3 5km SSE of San Juan Bautista, 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 4.7 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 12,000 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.