QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

16 km WSW of Patterson, CA

· 3.4 km deep · released about 1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Stanislaus County 31 kmSanta Clara County 40 kmMerced County 57 kmSan Joaquin County 57 kmAlameda County 59 kmSanta Cruz County 77 kmContra Costa County 80 kmSan Benito County 92 kmSan Mateo County 94 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
3.4 km below the surface
Felt
42 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Stanislaus County, 31 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 688 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 42 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 37.4187, -121.3045. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Stanislaus County, CA 31 km (19 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Santa Clara County, CA 40 km (25 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Merced County, CA 57 km (36 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Joaquin County, CA 57 km (36 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Alameda County, CA 59 km (37 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 77 km (48 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 11 km WSW of Patterson, CA
  2. 2.7 15 km SW of Westley, CA
  3. 2.5 24 km SSW of Gustine, CA
  4. 2.5 24 km SSW of Gustine, CA
  5. 1.7 25 km NE of Hollister, CA
  6. 1.6 15 km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  7. 1.7 20 km WSW of Patterson, CA
  8. 2.4 9 km E of Gilroy, CA
  9. 1.6 24 km SW of Gustine, CA
  10. 1.7 9 km ENE of Morgan Hill, CA
  11. 2.4 23 km W of Los Banos, CA
  12. 1.6 25 km NE of Hollister, CA
  13. 1.7 25 km NE of Hollister, CA
  14. 2.2 25 km NE of Hollister, CA
  15. 1.5 24 km W of Los Banos, 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 580 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.