QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

4 km SE of Oakland, CA

· 6.9 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 27 kmAlameda County 29 kmSan Mateo County 43 kmMarin County 57 kmSolano County 60 kmSan Francisco County 74 kmSanta Clara County 76 kmNapa County 83 kmSan Joaquin County 83 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
6.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 27 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 573 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 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 37.7718, -122.1973. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 27 km (17 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Alameda County, CA 29 km (18 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
San Mateo County, CA 43 km (26 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Marin County, CA 57 km (36 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Marin County
Solano County, CA 60 km (37 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Francisco County, CA 74 km (46 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Francisco County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 9 km NNE of Livermore, CA
  2. 1.8 9 km NNE of Livermore, CA
  3. 1.5 12 km SSE of Livermore, CA
  4. 1.7 4 km SSE of Pacifica, CA
  5. 1.9 1 km SSE of Walnut Creek, CA
  6. 1.5 8 km NNE of Benicia, CA
  7. 1.7 5 km W of Dublin, CA
  8. 2.7 3 km W of Orinda, CA
  9. 2.9 5 km WNW of Dublin, CA
  10. 1.7 9 km E of Blackhawk, CA
  11. 1.5 5 km E of Vallejo, CA
  12. 1.7 2 km ENE of Lafayette, CA
  13. 1.8 3 km SW of Blackhawk, CA
  14. 2.5 5 km WNW of Dublin, CA
  15. 1.6 4 km WNW of Dublin, 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 28,000 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.