QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

11km NNW of Hollister, CA

· 3.9 km deep · released about 1,700 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 39 kmSan Benito County 48 kmSanta Cruz County 51 kmMerced County 70 kmMonterey County 78 kmStanislaus County 79 kmAlameda County 89 kmSan Mateo County 98 kmSan Joaquin County 112 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
3.9 km below the surface
Felt
32 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 39 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1182 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 32 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,700 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,700 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 36.9380, -121.4398. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 39 km (24 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Benito County, CA 48 km (30 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Cruz County, CA 51 km (32 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Merced County, CA 70 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Monterey County, CA 78 km (49 mi) N of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Stanislaus County, CA 79 km (49 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

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

  1. 1.8 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  2. 1.7 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  3. 2.1 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  4. 1.7 8km WSW of Ridgemark, CA
  5. 2.0 10km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  6. 2.1 14km ESE of Tres Pinos, CA
  7. 1.6 7km NNE of Tres Pinos, CA
  8. 1.5 2km E of Aromas, CA
  9. 1.6 10km SW of Tres Pinos, CA
  10. 2.1 5km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  11. 1.9 15km E of Seven Trees, CA
  12. 2.6 2km SW of Hollister, CA
  13. 1.5 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 2.2 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  15. 3.1 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, 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 710 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.