QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

20 km WSW of Patterson, CA

· -0.5 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Stanislaus County 34 kmSanta Clara County 37 kmAlameda County 57 kmSan Joaquin County 59 kmMerced County 59 kmSanta Cruz County 74 kmContra Costa County 79 kmSan Benito County 91 kmSan Mateo County 91 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
-0.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Stanislaus County, 34 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 984 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 970,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 86× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 37.4057, -121.3368. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Stanislaus County, CA 34 km (21 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Santa Clara County, CA 37 km (23 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 57 km (36 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
San Joaquin County, CA 59 km (37 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Merced County, CA 59 km (37 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Santa Cruz County, CA 74 km (46 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

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

  1. 2.1 15 km E of Seven Trees, CA
  2. 1.6 13 km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA
  3. 1.5 14 km SSE of Livermore, CA
  4. 2.1 9 km E of Milpitas, CA
  5. 2.1 9 km NE of Gilroy, CA
  6. 1.9 16 km E of Seven Trees, CA
  7. 2.2 16 km E of Seven Trees, CA
  8. 1.5 18 km WSW of Patterson, CA
  9. 2.8 16 km E of Seven Trees, CA
  10. 1.6 8 km ENE of Gilroy, CA
  11. 1.6 9 km E of Gilroy, CA
  12. 1.6 2 km N of Livermore, CA
  13. 2.0 24 km SSW of Gustine, CA
  14. 1.5 16 km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  15. 2.9 17 km SW of Westley, 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 110,000 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.