QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.2md

8 km SSE of South Lake Tahoe, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 64 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Douglas County 30 kmAlpine County 30 kmCarson City 36 kmEl Dorado County 51 kmLyon County 68 kmPlacer County 70 kmStorey County 74 kmAmador County 77 kmNevada 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 2.2 (md)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Douglas County, 30 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 153 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 64 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 230,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 170,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 15× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.2 about 64 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 38.8663, -119.9527. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Douglas County, NV 30 km (19 mi) W of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Alpine County, CA 30 km (19 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Carson City, NV 36 km (23 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Carson City
El Dorado County, CA 51 km (32 mi) E of here earthquakes near El Dorado County
Lyon County, NV 68 km (42 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Placer County, CA 70 km (44 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Placer County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 13 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  2. 2.0 14 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  3. 1.7 3 km SE of East Valley, Nevada
  4. 1.9 15 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  5. 1.9 14 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  6. 2.3 15 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  7. 2.3 15 km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  8. 1.6 5 km ENE of Johnson Lane, Nevada
  9. 1.8 6 km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  10. 1.9 20 km E of Markleeville, CA
  11. 1.8 8 km NNW of Dollar Point, CA
  12. 1.9 13 km WNW of Walker, CA
  13. 2.3 15 km E of Markleeville, CA
  14. 2.3 4 km SW of Tahoe Vista, CA
  15. 2.0 4 km WSW of Tahoe Vista, 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 2020-03-21 — it released about 2,600 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.