QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4mw

8 km NE of Alum Rock, CA

· 9.4 km deep · released about 2 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 24 kmAlameda County 27 kmSanta Cruz County 51 kmSan Mateo County 53 kmContra Costa County 57 kmStanislaus County 70 kmSan Joaquin County 72 kmSolano County 94 kmMerced 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 3.4 (mw)
Depth
9.4 km below the surface
Felt
3043 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 24 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 743 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 3043 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 86,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 2 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.1× 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 37.4282, -121.7738. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 24 km (15 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 27 km (17 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Santa Cruz County, CA 51 km (31 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 53 km (33 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Contra Costa County, CA 57 km (35 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Stanislaus County, CA 70 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 10 km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  2. 2.4 5 km NE of Castro Valley, CA
  3. 1.6 5 km NE of Castro Valley, CA
  4. 1.9 4 km WNW of Los Altos Hills, CA
  5. 2.5 9 km E of Alum Rock, CA
  6. 1.6 0 km NW of Castro Valley, CA
  7. 1.7 8 km N of Livermore, CA
  8. 2.6 7 km SW of Brentwood, CA
  9. 2.6 10 km E of Blackhawk, CA
  10. 1.5 3 km ESE of Hayward, CA
  11. 1.7 3 km E of Hayward, CA
  12. 2.4 10 km SE of Sunol, CA
  13. 1.5 25 km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  14. 3.4 25 km NE of Morgan Hill, CA
  15. 1.7 2 km NE of San Leandro, 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 300 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.