QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

4 km N of Dollar Point, CA

· 3.5 km deep · released about 1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Carson City 31 kmSierra County 54 kmStorey County 55 kmDouglas County 55 kmPlacer County 57 kmNevada County 59 kmEl Dorado County 62 kmAlpine County 72 kmLyon County 81 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
3.5 km below the surface
Felt
133 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Carson City, 31 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 799 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 133 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 170,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.1× 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 39.2225, -120.0957. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Carson City, NV 31 km (19 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Sierra County, CA 54 km (33 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Storey County, NV 55 km (34 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Douglas County, NV 55 km (34 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Placer County, CA 57 km (35 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Placer County
Nevada County, CA 59 km (37 mi) E of here earthquakes near Nevada County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 2 km N of Reno, Nevada
  2. 1.9 8 km E of Carson City, Nevada
  3. 1.7 1 km NE of East Valley, Nevada
  4. 1.9 6 km S of Sierraville, California
  5. 1.8 6 km S of Sierraville, California
  6. 2.2 9 km N of Truckee, CA
  7. 1.7 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  8. 2.2 24 km W of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  9. 2.2 6 km NNW of Truckee, CA
  10. 1.7 14 km S of Kingvale, California
  11. 2.1 26 km W of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  12. 1.5 11 km NE of Johnson Lane, Nevada
  13. 1.6 Northern California
  14. 2.2 3 km WSW of Tahoe Vista, CA
  15. 2.5 4 km NNE of Dollar Point, 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 2021-05-07 — it released about 140 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.