Earthquake near San Jose, CA

A magnitude 2.1 earthquake was recorded 17 km (11 mi) NE of San Jose, CA, at 9:49 pm PDT on 27 September 2026 (04:49 UTC). 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS. This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: East Foothills, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Fremont, Pleasanton, Livermore.

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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 5.1 on 2022-10-25 — about 30,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 19 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 The 1989 Loma Prieta, California Earthquake · 48 km S of this epicentre Oct 18, 1989
2. 6.5 Near Morgan Hill, California · 41 km SSE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1911
3. 6.2 Near San Jose, California · 18 km S of this epicentre Aug 3, 1903
4. 6.2 The 1984 Morgan Hill, California Earthquake · 19 km SSE of this epicentre Apr 24, 1984
5. 6.1 Near San Jose, California · 29 km S of this epicentre Jun 11, 1903

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 37.4618, -121.7753. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.0 4 km WSW of Cupertino, CA 15:53 UTC
2. 1.1 5 km WSW of Cupertino, CA 14:10 UTC
3. 1.3 11 km SW of Loyola, CA 05:48 UTC
4. 2.1 26 km WSW of Westley, CA 04:04 UTC
5. 1.2 15 km E of Seven Trees, CA 06:55 UTC
6. 1.7 2 km SW of San Ramon, CA 22:06 UTC
7. 1.3 11 km SSE of Portola Valley, CA 12:57 UTC
8. 1.4 26 km WSW of Westley, CA 04:49 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:03 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

Revisions

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

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.