QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

21 km WNW of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA

· -1.5 km deep · released about 14 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Placer County 33 kmNevada County 34 kmSierra County 43 kmEl Dorado County 48 kmCarson City 56 kmDouglas County 75 kmStorey County 79 kmYuba County 82 kmAlpine 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
-1.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Placer County, 33 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 503 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 14 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 790,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 70× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 14 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 39.2058, -120.3922. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Placer County, CA 33 km (20 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Placer County
Nevada County, CA 34 km (21 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Sierra County, CA 43 km (27 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
El Dorado County, CA 48 km (30 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near El Dorado County
Carson City, NV 56 km (35 mi) W of here earthquakes near Carson City
Douglas County, NV 75 km (47 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Douglas County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 16 km SE of Whitehawk, CA
  2. 3.3 9 km NNE of Truckee, CA
  3. 2.5 9 km NNE of Truckee, CA
  4. 2.5 9 km NNE of Truckee, CA
  5. 2.1 9 km NNE of Truckee, CA
  6. 1.9 32 km S of Whitehawk, CA
  7. 1.5 4 km W of Sattley, California
  8. 1.6 1 km W of Sattley, California
  9. 1.8 10 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  10. 2.4 11 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  11. 1.9 10 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  12. 2.4 10 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  13. 2.1 11 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  14. 1.6 4 km ENE of Dollar Point, CA
  15. 2.0 22 km SSW of Tahoma, 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 4.7 on 2021-05-07 — it released about 21,000 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.