QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

28 km S of Willow Creek, CA

· 31 km deep · released about 1,700 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Humboldt County 29 kmTrinity County 40 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
31 km below the surface
Felt
6 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Humboldt County, 29 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1023 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 6 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,700 lb 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 6.7 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 8,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,700 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.8× 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 40.6940, -123.5810. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Humboldt County, CA 29 km (18 mi) E of here earthquakes near Humboldt County
Trinity County, CA 40 km (25 mi) W of here earthquakes near Trinity County
Del Norte County, CA 122 km (76 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Del Norte County
Tehama County, CA 130 km (81 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Tehama County
Siskiyou County, CA 133 km (82 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Siskiyou County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 10 km SE of Rio Dell, CA
  2. 1.6 37 km ESE of Hydesville, CA
  3. 2.0 25 km ESE of Willow Creek, CA
  4. 1.5 23 km NNE of Redway, CA
  5. 1.9 32 km E of Hydesville, CA
  6. 1.8 28 km ESE of Rio Dell, CA
  7. 1.7 33 km W of Hayfork, CA
  8. 1.9 25 km E of Hydesville, CA
  9. 2.9 31 km E of Willow Creek, CA
  10. 1.7 20 km ESE of Hydesville, CA
  11. 1.9 22 km E of Hydesville, CA
  12. 4.0 9 km SE of Blue Lake, CA
  13. 2.2 35 km WSW of Hayfork, CA
  14. 1.5 21 km NE of Redway, CA
  15. 2.5 26 km WSW of Hayfork, 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 5.3 on 2023-01-01 — it released about 1,900 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.