QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 1.9md

5 km NNE of Castro Valley, CA

· 15 km deep · released about 25 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alameda County 17 kmContra Costa County 23 kmSan Mateo County 45 kmSolano County 60 kmSanta Clara County 66 kmMarin County 69 kmSan Joaquin County 73 kmSanta Cruz County 81 kmSan Francisco County 85 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 1.9 (md)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alameda County, 17 km SE
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 769 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 25 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 620,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 440,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 39× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 25 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 37.7362, -122.0673. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alameda County, CA 17 km (10 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 23 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Mateo County, CA 45 km (28 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Solano County, CA 60 km (37 mi) S of here earthquakes near Solano County
Santa Clara County, CA 66 km (41 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Marin County, CA 69 km (43 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Marin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 4 km WSW of Hillsborough, CA
  2. 1.9 5 km SW of Clayton, CA
  3. 1.8 2 km ENE of Oakland, CA
  4. 2.1 15 km NE of Alum Rock, CA
  5. 1.6 6 km SSW of Loyola, CA
  6. 1.5 2 km SW of Blackhawk, CA
  7. 1.9 1 km WNW of Kensington, CA
  8. 1.6 5 km WSW of Millbrae, CA
  9. 2.5 1 km ESE of Pacheco, CA
  10. 1.9 2 km NW of Alamo, CA
  11. 1.6 4 km SW of Clayton, CA
  12. 1.9 2 km NW of Alamo, CA
  13. 1.8 3 km N of Hayward, CA
  14. 1.6 2 km NW of Alamo, CA
  15. 1.7 3 km SW of Clayton, 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 4.5 on 2019-10-15 — it released about 6,000 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.