QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

6 km W of Tahoe Vista, CA

· 6.9 km deep · released about 49 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Carson City 34 kmSierra County 50 kmPlacer County 56 kmStorey County 56 kmNevada County 56 kmDouglas County 58 kmEl Dorado County 62 kmAlpine County 75 kmLyon County 84 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
6.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Carson City, 34 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 913 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 49 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 310,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 220,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 49 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 39.2453, -120.1225. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Carson City, NV 34 km (21 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Sierra County, CA 50 km (31 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Placer County, CA 56 km (35 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Placer County
Storey County, NV 56 km (35 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Nevada County, CA 56 km (35 mi) E of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Douglas County, NV 58 km (36 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Douglas County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 12 km SE of Sparks, Nevada
  2. 2.1 3 km SW of Tahoe Vista, CA
  3. 2.5 25 km WNW of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  4. 2.3 4 km NNE of East Valley, Nevada
  5. 1.8 26 km WNW of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  6. 2.2 30 km W of Truckee, CA
  7. 1.9 15 km of Incline Village-Crystal Bay, NV
  8. 2.7 21 km WNW of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  9. 2.5 4 km E of Truckee, CA
  10. 2.1 14 km SW of Loyalton, CA
  11. 2.3 14 km SW of Loyalton, CA
  12. 1.7 21 km WNW of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  13. 2.0 4 km NNE of Dollar Point, CA
  14. 2.0 6 km NNE of Verdi, California
  15. 2.2 5 km NNE of Verdi, California

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 5,800 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.