QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

9km NNE of San Juan Bautista, CA

· 5.0 km deep · released about 9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 37 kmSanta Cruz County 45 kmSan Benito County 51 kmMerced County 77 kmMonterey County 78 kmStanislaus County 84 kmAlameda County 88 kmSan Mateo County 94 kmSan Joaquin 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 37 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1244 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 9 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 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 9 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 36.9218, -121.5150. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 37 km (23 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 45 km (28 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Benito County, CA 51 km (32 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Merced County, CA 77 km (48 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Monterey County, CA 78 km (48 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Stanislaus County, CA 84 km (52 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

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

  1. 1.9 5km NNW of Day Valley, CA
  2. 2.3 7km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 1.6 13km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  4. 1.9 9km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 1.8 1km WSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  6. 2.0 7km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 2.0 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  8. 1.7 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  9. 2.6 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  10. 1.7 12km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  11. 1.8 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  12. 1.7 12km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  13. 2.1 10km E of Gilroy, CA
  14. 1.7 8km WSW of Ridgemark, CA
  15. 2.0 10km SSW 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 130,000 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.