QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

24 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada

· 8.7 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mineral County 41 kmMono County 56 kmLyon County 72 kmDouglas County 84 kmAlpine County 84 kmTuolumne County 105 kmCarson City 111 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
8.7 km below the surface
Felt
5 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Mineral County, 41 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2972 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 5 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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 38.4216, -118.8732. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mineral County, NV 41 km (26 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Mineral County
Mono County, CA 56 km (35 mi) N of here earthquakes near Mono County
Lyon County, NV 72 km (45 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Douglas County, NV 84 km (52 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Alpine County, CA 84 km (52 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Tuolumne County, CA 105 km (65 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 19 km E of Walker, California
  2. 2.0 28 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  3. 1.5 California-Nevada border region
  4. 2.1 17 km ENE of Hawthorne, Nevada
  5. 1.5 12 km SSW of Bridgeport, California
  6. 1.7 23 km WNW of Mina, Nevada
  7. 2.1 29 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  8. 1.7 11 km SE of Smith Valley, Nevada
  9. 1.6 15km SW of Bodie, CA
  10. 1.5 16 km SW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  11. 1.8 14 km NNE of Hawthorne, Nevada
  12. 1.9 21 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  13. 1.5 20 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  14. 3.3 21 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  15. 1.6 14 km NNW of Walker Lake, Nevada

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 5.6 on 2016-12-28 — it released about 11,000 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.