QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

22 km NNE of San Ardo, CA

· 7.0 km deep · released about 40 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 49 kmSan Benito County 55 kmKings County 86 kmSan Luis Obispo County 93 kmMerced County 112 kmFresno County 118 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monterey County, 49 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 71 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 40 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 380,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 270,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 24× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 40 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 36.1868, -120.7680. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 49 km (31 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 55 km (34 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Kings County, CA 86 km (54 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 93 km (58 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Merced County, CA 112 km (70 mi) S of here earthquakes near Merced County
Fresno County, CA 118 km (73 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 12 km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  2. 1.7 7 km WNW of San Ardo, CA
  3. 1.9 9 km ESE of Coalinga, CA
  4. 1.9 22 km NE of San Ardo, CA
  5. 1.8 16 km E of New Idria, CA
  6. 2.0 22 km NNE of San Ardo, CA
  7. 1.6 2 km ESE of Pinnacles, CA
  8. 1.5 21 km NE of San Lucas, CA
  9. 1.6 12 km E of Coalinga, CA
  10. 1.7 11 km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  11. 1.9 16 km NE of New Idria, CA
  12. 1.7 13 km ESE of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 1.6 23 km WSW of New Idria, CA
  14. 1.6 6 km SE of Parkfield, CA
  15. 2.1 6 km SSE of Parkfield, 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 4.3 on 2023-08-10 — it released about 2,000 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.