QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

4 km ESE of Carmel By The Sea, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 54 kmMonterey County 60 kmSan Benito County 71 kmSanta Clara County 78 kmSan Mateo County 107 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 54 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1113 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 5.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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 36.5393, -121.8772. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 54 km (33 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Monterey County, CA 60 km (37 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 71 km (44 mi) W of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Clara County, CA 78 km (48 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Mateo County, CA 107 km (66 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Merced County, CA 126 km (78 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Merced County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 1 km N of Aromas, CA
  2. 1.6 2 km E of Aromas, CA
  3. 2.5 19 km ESE of Point Sur, CA
  4. 1.6 3 km WSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  5. 2.6 6 km SSE of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 2.2 3 km SSW of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 1.7 7 km ESE of Prunedale, CA
  8. 1.7 2 km ENE of Aromas, CA
  9. 2.1 5 km ESE of Interlaken, CA
  10. 3.3 5 km ESE of Interlaken, CA
  11. 1.6 2 km ESE of Aromas, CA
  12. 2.0 5 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 2.9 13 km N of Point Sur, CA
  14. 1.6 5 km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  15. 1.8 3 km E of Aromas, 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 4.2 on 2021-01-17 — it released about 11,000 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.