QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.5mw

2km NW of The Geysers, CA

· 3.8 km deep · released about 71 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sonoma County 32 kmLake County 35 kmNapa County 50 kmColusa County 63 kmYolo County 77 kmMarin County 82 kmMendocino County 91 kmSolano County 93 kmGlenn County 96 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 4.5 (mw)
Depth
3.8 km below the surface
Felt
314 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Sonoma County, 32 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 633 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 314 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 71 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2,400× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 110× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 75× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.5 about 71 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 150× 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 38.7922, -122.7785. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sonoma County, CA 32 km (20 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Sonoma County
Lake County, CA 35 km (22 mi) S of here earthquakes near Lake County
Napa County, CA 50 km (31 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Napa County
Colusa County, CA 63 km (39 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Yolo County, CA 77 km (48 mi) W of here earthquakes near Yolo County
Marin County, CA 82 km (51 mi) N of here earthquakes near Marin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 7km WNW of Cobb, CA
  2. 1.7 5km NW of The Geysers, CA
  3. 1.6 3km NE of The Geysers, CA
  4. 1.7 4km E of Upper Lake, CA
  5. 1.9 2km NW of The Geysers, CA
  6. 1.7 1km NNW of The Geysers, CA
  7. 2.1 6km S of Calistoga, CA
  8. 2.3 7km NW of The Geysers, CA
  9. 2.1 6km NW of The Geysers, CA
  10. 1.8 2km W of Anderson Springs, CA
  11. 1.6 7km NW of The Geysers, CA
  12. 2.1 2km NE of The Geysers, CA
  13. 1.6 6km NW of The Geysers, CA
  14. 1.7 3km NE of The Geysers, CA
  15. 1.7 9km NW of The Geysers, 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 5.0 on 2016-12-14 — it released about 6.9 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.