QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.4mw

1km NNW of Tres Pinos, CA

· 10 km deep · released about 62 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 30 kmSanta Clara County 57 kmMonterey County 62 kmSanta Cruz County 65 kmMerced County 69 kmStanislaus County 89 kmAlameda County 108 kmSan Mateo County 115 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 4.4 (mw)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
12209 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
San Benito County, 30 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 620 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 12209 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 62 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2,700× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 120× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 86× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.4 about 62 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 130× 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 36.8010, -121.3230. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 30 km (19 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 57 km (35 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Monterey County, CA 62 km (39 mi) N of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Santa Cruz County, CA 65 km (41 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Merced County, CA 69 km (43 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Stanislaus County, CA 89 km (55 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 3km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 2.0 2km N of Hollister, CA
  3. 1.7 11km SSW of Ridgemark, CA
  4. 1.7 5km E of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 1.8 8km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  6. 1.6 11km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  7. 1.6 2km E of Aromas, CA
  8. 1.5 2km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  9. 1.9 7km NE of Pinnacles, CA
  10. 1.6 2km E of Aromas, CA
  11. 3.1 4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 1.9 16km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 1.7 5km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  14. 1.6 9km NNE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  15. 1.9 9km E of Pinnacles, 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 2.8 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.