QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0md

18 km ESE of Willows, CA

· 21 km deep · released about 31 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Colusa County 38 kmGlenn County 38 kmButte County 40 kmSutter County 54 kmYuba County 60 kmLake County 76 kmTehama County 76 kmYolo County 88 kmNevada 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 2.0 (md)
Depth
21 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Colusa County, 38 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 988 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 31 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 480,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 340,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 31× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 31 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 39.4637, -121.9955. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Colusa County, CA 38 km (24 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Glenn County, CA 38 km (24 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Butte County, CA 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Butte County
Sutter County, CA 54 km (33 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Sutter County
Yuba County, CA 60 km (37 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Lake County, CA 76 km (47 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Lake County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 5 km E of Williams, CA
  2. 2.7 5 km W of Hamilton City, CA
  3. 1.9 7 km ESE of Williams, CA
  4. 2.5 15 km S of Hamilton City, CA
  5. 2.2 4 km WSW of Hamilton City, CA
  6. 2.0 17 km E of Willows, CA
  7. 1.9 19 km E of Willows, CA
  8. 2.4 9 km S of Hamilton City, CA
  9. 1.9 5 km WSW of Concow, CA
  10. 3.1 9 km ENE of Colusa, CA
  11. 3.2 15 km E of Willows, CA
  12. 2.1 16 km ESE of Willows, CA
  13. 2.3 13 km NNW of Chico, CA
  14. 2.8 12 km SSE of Willows, CA
  15. 2.2 3 km SE of Hamilton City, 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 2022-07-23 — it released about 2,200 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.