QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

4 km NNW of Pacifica, CA

· 8.5 km deep · released about 6.2 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Mateo County 28 kmSan Francisco County 47 kmMarin County 50 kmAlameda County 52 kmContra Costa County 58 kmSanta Cruz County 83 kmSolano County 85 kmSanta Clara County 86 kmNapa County 97 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Mateo County, 28 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 839 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 6.2 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 6.2 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 37.6440, -122.5070. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Mateo County, CA 28 km (17 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
San Francisco County, CA 47 km (29 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Francisco County
Marin County, CA 50 km (31 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Marin County
Alameda County, CA 52 km (33 mi) W of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 58 km (36 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Santa Cruz County, CA 83 km (52 mi) NNW 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

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

  1. 1.6 7 km ESE of Santa Venetia, CA
  2. 1.7 5 km ENE of El Granada, CA
  3. 2.4 1 km NNE of Oakland, CA
  4. 1.5 5 km E of El Granada, CA
  5. 1.6 2 km NNE of San Leandro, CA
  6. 1.7 5 km E of El Granada, CA
  7. 1.9 4 km WSW of San Francisco Zoo, CA
  8. 2.0 4 km WSW of San Francisco Zoo, CA
  9. 1.7 1 km NE of Union City, CA
  10. 1.7 5 km E of El Granada, CA
  11. 1.7 4 km W of Daly City, CA
  12. 1.8 2 km SSW of Loyola, CA
  13. 1.8 4 km SSE of Rodeo, CA
  14. 1.6 6 km ESE of Santa Venetia, CA
  15. 1.6 4 km WSW of Colma, 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 4.4 on 2018-01-04 — it released about 18,000 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.