QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

27 km WSW of Westley, CA

· 2.4 km deep · released about 2.3 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 30 kmStanislaus County 43 kmAlameda County 48 kmSan Joaquin County 60 kmSanta Cruz County 67 kmMerced County 69 kmContra Costa County 71 kmSan Mateo County 81 kmSan Benito 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
2.4 km below the surface
Felt
8 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 30 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3 hours ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 8 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 75,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,300× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.7× more

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.

Revisions

USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.

What changedFromToWhen
felt reports78
felt reports57
reported intensity2.22.4
felt reports35
measured intensity3.623.61
reported intensitynot reported2.2
felt reportsnot reported3
review statusautomaticreviewed
measured intensitynot reported3.62

Where

Epicentre 37.4177, -121.4555. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 30 km (19 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
Stanislaus County, CA 43 km (27 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Alameda County, CA 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alameda County
San Joaquin County, CA 60 km (37 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Joaquin County
Santa Cruz County, CA 67 km (41 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Merced County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Merced County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 26 km WSW of Westley, CA
  2. 1.4 26 km WSW of Westley, CA
  3. 2.6 26 km WSW of Westley, CA
  4. 1.3 26 km WSW of Westley, 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 260 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.