4 km NW of Cold Springs, NV

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 20 km (12 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: Cold Springs 4 km, intensity III. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 120 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 120,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 86,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 7.7× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.4 about 120 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.7 on 2021-05-07 — about 2,300 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 10 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.0 Near Reno, Nevada · 29 km SE of this epicentre Feb 18, 1914
2. 6.0 6 km WNW of Verdi, California · 18 km SSW of this epicentre Dec 29, 1948
3. 5.9 9 km NW of Truckee, California · 40 km SSW of this epicentre Sep 12, 1966
4. 5.6 6 km NNE of Doyle, California · 43 km N of this epicentre Dec 14, 1950
5. 5.6 5 km NE of Loyalton, California · 16 km W of this epicentre Apr 1, 1959

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 39.7005, -120.0083. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.1 5 km NW of Spanish Springs, Nevada 21:00 UTC
2. 2.7 1 km N of Lake Davis, CA 16:16 UTC
3. 1.6 19 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada 21:00 UTC
4. 2.3 6 km ESE of Mogul, Nevada 06:07 UTC
5. 1.5 20 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada 23:00 UTC
6. 1.6 2 km NNW of Sun Valley, Nevada 02:27 UTC
7. 1.9 1 km WNW of Sun Valley, Nevada 21:54 UTC
8. 2.8 1 km WNW of Sun Valley, Nevada 05:33 UTC
9. 1.8 1 km WNW of Sun Valley, Nevada 18:32 UTC
10. 1.6 1 km NNW of Sun Valley, Nevada 11:49 UTC
11. 1.8 23 km NNW of Chilcoot-Vinton, CA 09:57 UTC
12. 2.1 11 km N of Kings Beach, CA 10:09 UTC
13. 2.1 7 km NE of Lake Davis, CA 19:00 UTC
14. 2.3 9 km NW of Verdi-Mogul, NV 10:53 UTC
15. 1.7 5 km SSE of Floriston, California 10:10 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:45 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.