QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

43 km E of Fort Bidwell, California

· 11 km deep · released about 3.8 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Modoc County 96 kmLake County 119 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity I
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Modoc County, 96 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1565 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.9× 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.

Where

Epicentre 41.8765, -119.6301. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Modoc County, CA 96 km (59 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Modoc County
Lake County, OR 119 km (74 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Lake County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 42 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  2. 2.0 47 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  3. 1.6 Nevada
  4. 1.8 42 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  5. 1.6 45 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  6. 1.6 45 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  7. 1.9 Nevada
  8. 1.8 42 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  9. 2.6 40 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  10. 2.5 43 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  11. 1.6 40 km ENE of Fort Bidwell, California
  12. 2.5 42 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  13. 1.6 42 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  14. 2.0 45 km E of Fort Bidwell, California
  15. 1.5 46 km E of Fort Bidwell, California

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 4.1 on 2016-01-03 — it released about 5.6 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.