QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

0 km SW of Boulder Creek, CA

· 8.5 km deep · released about 7.1 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Cruz County 16 kmSan Mateo County 39 kmSanta Clara County 40 kmAlameda County 61 kmContra Costa County 90 kmSan Francisco County 105 kmSan Benito County 109 kmStanislaus County 110 kmMarin County 117 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Cruz County, 16 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 171 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 7.1 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.1 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 37.1243, -122.1240. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Cruz County, CA 16 km (10 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
San Mateo County, CA 39 km (24 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Mateo County
Santa Clara County, CA 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Alameda County, CA 61 km (38 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Alameda County
Contra Costa County, CA 90 km (56 mi) S of here earthquakes near Contra Costa County
San Francisco County, CA 105 km (65 mi) SE 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

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

  1. 2.2 7 km SW of Gilroy, CA
  2. 1.6 7 km NNE of Aromas, CA
  3. 1.6 7 km SW of Gilroy, CA
  4. 1.5 15 km E of Seven Trees, CA
  5. 1.8 7 km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  6. 1.5 3 km ESE of Woodside, CA
  7. 1.8 3 km NNE of Portola Valley, CA
  8. 1.7 6 km SSE of Portola Valley, CA
  9. 1.9 3 km NNE of Portola Valley, CA
  10. 1.8 15 km E of Seven Trees, CA
  11. 1.7 4 km ESE of Interlaken, CA
  12. 2.1 15 km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  13. 2.2 8 km NE of Alum Rock, CA
  14. 2.3 14 km N of Morgan Hill, CA
  15. 1.6 2 km W of Portola Valley, 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 5.1 on 2022-10-25 — it released about 170,000 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.