QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

22 km SW of Gustine, CA

· 4.7 km deep · released about 6.6 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Merced County 40 kmSanta Clara County 48 kmStanislaus County 52 kmSan Benito County 56 kmSanta Cruz County 75 kmAlameda County 89 kmSan Joaquin County 92 kmMonterey County 97 kmSan Mateo County 112 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
4.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Merced County, 40 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 684 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 6.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.6 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 37.1083, -121.1657. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Merced County, CA 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Santa Clara County, CA 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 52 km (33 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
San Benito County, CA 56 km (35 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Cruz County, CA 75 km (47 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Alameda County, CA 89 km (55 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Alameda County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 6 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  2. 1.6 6 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  3. 1.6 7 km W of Gilroy, CA
  4. 2.4 4 km SE of Aromas, CA
  5. 2.1 8 km ENE of Interlaken, CA
  6. 1.8 7 km SE of Tres Pinos, CA
  7. 2.0 2 km ENE of Aromas, CA
  8. 3.0 12 km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  9. 2.6 5 km SW of Gilroy, CA
  10. 1.6 12 km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 2.0 11 km SW of Ridgemark, CA
  12. 2.3 9 km ESE of Gilroy, CA
  13. 2.3 15 km NNE of Morgan Hill, CA
  14. 1.6 10 km SW of Tres Pinos, CA
  15. 2.9 1 km E of Aromas, 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 2023-09-19 — it released about 29,000 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.