QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5mw

18 km E of Markleeville, CA

· 5.3 km deep · released about 2.4 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 20 kmDouglas County 24 kmLyon County 50 kmCarson City 53 kmTuolumne County 81 kmEl Dorado County 83 kmStorey County 83 kmAmador County 97 kmCalaveras County 101 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 3.5 (mw)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
49 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Alpine County, 20 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 681 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 49 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.4 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 70,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.4 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.1× 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 38.6893, -119.5843. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 20 km (12 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 24 km (15 mi) S of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 50 km (31 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Carson City, NV 53 km (33 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Tuolumne County, CA 81 km (51 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
El Dorado County, CA 83 km (52 mi) E of here earthquakes near El Dorado County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  2. 2.1 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  3. 2.6 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  4. 1.8 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  5. 1.7 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  6. 1.5 2 km SE of Coleville, California
  7. 1.5 10 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  8. 1.9 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  9. 1.8 5 km WSW of Walker, California
  10. 3.4 3 km ESE of Mesa Vista, CA
  11. 2.3 3 km W of Markleeville, CA
  12. 2.5 4 km NNW of Walker, CA
  13. 1.5 3 km N of Carter Springs, Nevada
  14. 2.4 5 km of Walker, CA
  15. 2.3 5 km NNW of Walker, 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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 6,200 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.