QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.3mw

15km SE of Rio Dell, CA

· 31 km deep · released about 1.6 kilotons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 33 kmTrinity County 77 kmMendocino County 118 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 5.3 (mw)
Depth
31 km below the surface
Felt
1208 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity VII (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
yellow
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Humboldt County, 33 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 245 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 1208 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.6 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 110× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4.7× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3.3× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.3 about 1.6 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 3,300× 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 40.4090, -123.9710. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 33 km (21 mi) S of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 77 km (48 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Mendocino County, CA 118 km (73 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. 2.4 12km SSE of Rio Dell, CA
  2. 1.7 34km ESE of Rio Dell, CA
  3. 1.9 6km NNE of Hydesville, CA
  4. 2.0 16km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  5. 1.7 3km S of Ferndale, CA
  6. 1.6 4km WNW of Fortuna, CA
  7. 2.2 8km SW of Ferndale, CA
  8. 3.1 4km ESE of Ferndale, CA
  9. 1.7 12km ESE of Rio Dell, CA
  10. 2.9 19km WSW of Petrolia, CA
  11. 1.8 12km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  12. 2.1 19km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  13. 2.1 16km WSW of Ferndale, CA
  14. 2.4 5km SW of Ferndale, CA
  15. 1.9 18km N of Redway, 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 6.4 on 2022-12-20 — it released about 38 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.