QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 3.1ml

8 km NW of Pinnacles, CA

· 5.3 km deep · released about 1,600 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 13 kmMonterey County 38 kmMerced County 82 kmSanta Clara County 83 kmSanta Cruz County 86 kmStanislaus County 112 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
6 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
San Benito County, 13 km ENE
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 255 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 6 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,600 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,600 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 36.5742, -121.2182. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 13 km (8 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 38 km (24 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 82 km (51 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Santa Clara County, CA 83 km (52 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County, CA 86 km (53 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Stanislaus County, CA 112 km (69 mi) S of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 9 km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 1.9 20 km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 1.9 7 km ESE of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 2.0 3 km SSE of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 2.2 5 km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  6. 2.8 5 km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  7. 2.5 5 km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  8. 2.5 5 km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  9. 3.2 5 km W of San Juan Bautista, CA
  10. 1.7 5 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  11. 4.0 5 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  12. 3.7 6 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  13. 2.7 6 km S of San Juan Bautista, CA
  14. 1.6 9 km ENE of Pinnacles, CA
  15. 1.5 6 km NE of Pinnacles, 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 2019-10-15 — it released about 220 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.