QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

4km S of San Juan Bautista, CA

· 5.1 km deep · released about 1,400 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 46 kmSanta Cruz County 47 kmSanta Clara County 47 kmMonterey County 67 kmMerced County 84 kmStanislaus County 96 kmAlameda County 99 kmSan Mateo County 100 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
5.1 km below the surface
Felt
52 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
San Benito County, 46 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1169 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 52 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,400 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 230,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 10,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,400 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.5× 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 36.8117, -121.5408. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 46 km (29 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Cruz County, CA 47 km (29 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 47 km (29 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Monterey County, CA 67 km (41 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 84 km (52 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Stanislaus County, CA 96 km (60 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

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

  1. 1.8 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 2.6 6km SSW of Gilroy, CA
  3. 1.8 2km NE of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 2.9 0km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 2.4 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  6. 2.3 2km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  7. 1.9 5km NNW of Day Valley, CA
  8. 2.3 7km NNW of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.6 13km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  10. 1.9 9km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  11. 1.8 1km WSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  12. 2.0 7km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 2.0 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 1.7 16km SSE of Tres Pinos, CA
  15. 2.6 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 4.7 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 240 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.