QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

12km ESE of Alum Rock, CA

· 8.0 km deep · released about 6.8 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 13 kmAlameda County 39 kmSanta Cruz County 45 kmSan Mateo County 60 kmStanislaus County 66 kmContra Costa County 69 kmSan Joaquin County 76 kmMerced County 88 kmSan Benito County 97 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
8.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 13 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1264 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 6.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.8 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 37.3373, -121.6970. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 13 km (8 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 39 km (24 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 45 km (28 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 60 km (37 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Stanislaus County, CA 66 km (41 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Contra Costa County, CA 69 km (43 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 7km SSE of Portola Valley, CA
  2. 2.1 7km SSE of Portola Valley, CA
  3. 1.8 6km E of Milpitas, CA
  4. 2.4 8km NE of Gilroy, CA
  5. 1.6 10km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  6. 1.9 13km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA
  7. 1.6 13km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  8. 2.6 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  9. 1.9 11km NNW of Hollister, CA
  10. 2.6 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  11. 1.7 10km NNE of Alum Rock, CA
  12. 1.9 5km NNW of Day Valley, CA
  13. 1.7 4km SW of Felton, CA
  14. 1.6 13km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  15. 1.7 12km ESE of Gilroy, 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 5.1 on 2022-10-25 — it released about 170,000 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.