QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.3mw

2 km ESE of Berkeley, CA

· 7.6 km deep · released about 41 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Contra Costa County 27 kmAlameda County 38 kmMarin County 48 kmSan Mateo County 51 kmSolano County 53 kmSan Francisco County 70 kmNapa County 72 kmSan Joaquin County 87 kmSanta Clara County 87 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 4.3 (mw)
Depth
7.6 km below the surface
Felt
31810 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Contra Costa County, 27 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 5 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 31810 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 41 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 4,100× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 180× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.3 about 41 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 86× more

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 37.8630, -122.2540. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Contra Costa County, CA 27 km (17 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
Alameda County, CA 38 km (24 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Marin County, CA 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Marin County
San Mateo County, CA 51 km (32 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Solano County, CA 53 km (33 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Solano County
San Francisco County, CA 70 km (44 mi) ENE 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

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

  1. 2.4 1 km E of Woodside, CA
  2. 1.6 1 km ESE of Woodside, CA
  3. 2.6 1 km ESE of Woodside, CA
  4. 2.2 1 km E of Woodside, CA
  5. 2.0 1 km ENE of Woodside, CA
  6. 2.5 1 km E of Woodside, CA
  7. 2.5 7 km NNW of Lafayette, CA
  8. 2.8 8 km NNW of Lafayette, CA
  9. 2.2 1 km E of Woodside, CA
  10. 2.0 1 km E of Woodside, CA
  11. 2.3 7 km NNW of Lafayette, CA
  12. 2.1 8 km ENE of Vallejo, CA
  13. 2.2 2 km E of Berkeley, CA
  14. 1.6 6 km ESE of Santa Venetia, CA
  15. 1.6 8 km NW of San Francisco Zoo, 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 1.8 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.