QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

6 km W of Magalia, CA

· 15 km deep · released about 43 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Butte County 16 kmTehama County 62 kmYuba County 65 kmGlenn County 69 kmPlumas County 73 kmSutter County 86 kmColusa County 87 kmNevada County 94 kmSierra County 99 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Butte County, 16 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 677 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 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 39.8070, -121.6425. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Butte County, CA 16 km (10 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Butte County
Tehama County, CA 62 km (38 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Tehama County
Yuba County, CA 65 km (40 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Glenn County, CA 69 km (43 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Plumas County, CA 73 km (45 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Sutter County, CA 86 km (53 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sutter County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 1 km SSE of Belden, CA
  2. 2.5 15 km ENE of Willows, CA
  3. 2.1 11 km WSW of Durham, CA
  4. 1.9 2 km SSE of Hamilton City, CA
  5. 2.5 17 km E of Willows, CA
  6. 1.9 17 km E of Willows, CA
  7. 2.3 16 km ESE of Willows, CA
  8. 2.2 5 km WNW of Magalia, CA
  9. 1.8 8 km NNE of Oroville East, CA
  10. 1.7 8 km NNE of Oroville East, CA
  11. 1.8 19 km ESE of Willows, CA
  12. 2.7 14 km E of Willows, CA
  13. 2.1 19 km NNW of Belden, CA
  14. 2.0 14 km WSW of Almanor, CA
  15. 2.1 15 km ESE of Willows, 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 2024-04-05 — it released about 3,000 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.