QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

4 km SSW of Lexington Hills, CA

· 13 km deep · released about 9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 13 kmSanta Clara County 29 kmSan Mateo County 46 kmAlameda County 58 kmContra Costa County 88 kmSan Benito County 99 kmStanislaus County 100 kmSan Joaquin County 110 kmMerced County 113 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
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 13 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1156 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 37.1327, -121.9950. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 13 km (8 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Santa Clara County, CA 29 km (18 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 46 km (28 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Alameda County, CA 58 km (36 mi) S of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 88 km (54 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Benito County, CA 99 km (62 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito 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. 1.7 4 km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 1.6 2 km ENE of Aromas, CA
  3. 1.9 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  4. 2.0 9 km NE of Alum Rock, CA
  5. 1.6 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  6. 2.0 20 km E of Alum Rock, CA
  7. 2.4 6 km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  8. 1.7 9 km NE of Milpitas, CA
  9. 1.9 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  10. 2.7 9 km NE of Alum Rock, CA
  11. 1.7 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  12. 2.1 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  13. 1.8 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  14. 2.8 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA
  15. 1.8 4 km WSW of Cupertino, 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.