QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

6km E of McKinleyville, CA

· 22 km deep · released about 3.9 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 28 kmTrinity County 84 kmDel Norte County 89 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
22 km below the surface
Felt
726 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Humboldt County, 28 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1060 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 726 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.9 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 43,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 8.2× 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 40.9488, -124.0303. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 28 km (18 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 84 km (52 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Del Norte County, CA 89 km (55 mi) S of here earthquakes near Del Norte County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 5km ENE of Fortuna, CA
  2. 2.2 3km SE of Ferndale, CA
  3. 2.0 4km ESE of Ferndale, CA
  4. 2.8 17km NNW of Trinidad, CA
  5. 2.0 11km NE of Hydesville, CA
  6. 2.5 4km SW of Humboldt Hill, CA
  7. 2.4 24km ENE of Hydesville, CA
  8. 2.5 8km W of Willow Creek, CA
  9. 1.9 7km NNE of Hydesville, CA
  10. 1.8 10km ENE of Hydesville, CA
  11. 1.9 6km NNE of Hydesville, CA
  12. 2.0 16km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  13. 1.7 3km S of Ferndale, CA
  14. 1.6 4km WNW of Fortuna, CA
  15. 3.1 4km ESE of Ferndale, 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 4.9 on 2022-12-20 — it released about 92 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.