QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

7 km ESE of Challenge-Brownsville, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 40 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Yuba County 23 kmNevada County 39 kmButte County 44 kmPlacer County 58 kmSierra County 59 kmSutter County 63 kmPlumas County 69 kmEl Dorado County 92 kmColusa County 95 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
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Yuba County, 23 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 55 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 39.4382, -121.1875. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Yuba County, CA 23 km (14 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Nevada County, CA 39 km (24 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Butte County, CA 44 km (27 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Butte County
Placer County, CA 58 km (36 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Placer County
Sierra County, CA 59 km (37 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Sutter County, CA 63 km (39 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Sutter County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 6 km E of Challenge-Brownsville, CA
  2. 2.1 8 km WNW of La Porte, 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 1,700 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.