QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

15 km E of Willows, CA

· 29 km deep · released about 1 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Glenn County 34 kmButte County 38 kmColusa County 43 kmSutter County 61 kmYuba County 64 kmTehama County 69 kmLake County 78 kmYolo County 95 kmNevada County 110 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
29 km below the surface
Felt
12 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Glenn County, 34 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 128 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 12 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1 tons 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 6.7 170,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.1× 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 39.5277, -122.0152. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Glenn County, CA 34 km (21 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Glenn County
Butte County, CA 38 km (24 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Butte County
Colusa County, CA 43 km (27 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Colusa County
Sutter County, CA 61 km (38 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Sutter County
Yuba County, CA 64 km (40 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Tehama County, CA 69 km (43 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Tehama County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 5 km E of Williams, CA
  2. 2.7 5 km W of Hamilton City, CA
  3. 1.9 7 km ESE of Williams, CA
  4. 2.5 15 km S of Hamilton City, CA
  5. 2.2 4 km WSW of Hamilton City, CA
  6. 2.0 17 km E of Willows, CA
  7. 1.9 19 km E of Willows, CA
  8. 2.4 9 km S of Hamilton City, CA
  9. 1.9 5 km WSW of Concow, CA
  10. 3.1 9 km ENE of Colusa, 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 34 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.