QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

8 km NNE of Oroville East, CA

· 16 km deep · released about 16 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Butte County 17 kmYuba County 35 kmSutter County 64 kmNevada County 66 kmPlumas County 70 kmSierra County 79 kmColusa County 81 kmGlenn County 82 kmPlacer County 85 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
16 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Butte County, 17 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 451 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 16 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 5.8 930,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 660,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 59× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 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 39.5782, -121.4462. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Butte County, CA 17 km (10 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Butte County
Yuba County, CA 35 km (22 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Sutter County, CA 64 km (40 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Sutter County
Nevada County, CA 66 km (41 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Plumas County, CA 70 km (44 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Sierra County, CA 79 km (49 mi) W of here earthquakes near Sierra County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 6 km E of Challenge-Brownsville, CA
  2. 2.1 8 km WNW of La Porte, CA
  3. 2.1 7 km ESE of Challenge-Brownsville, CA
  4. 2.0 17 km E of Willows, CA
  5. 1.9 19 km E of Willows, CA
  6. 1.9 5 km WSW of Concow, CA
  7. 2.3 13 km NNW of Chico, CA
  8. 2.1 1 km SSE of Belden, CA
  9. 2.2 3 km SE of Hamilton City, CA
  10. 2.1 1 km SSE of Belden, CA
  11. 2.1 11 km WSW of Durham, CA
  12. 1.9 17 km E of Willows, CA
  13. 2.2 5 km WNW of Magalia, 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 4.2 on 2022-07-23 — it released about 4,300 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.