QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0ml

Earthquake near Sandy Valley, NV

USGS: 14 km WNW of Sandy Valley, Nevada

60 km (37 mi) SW of Las Vegas, NV

4:48 am PDT, Jul 17, 2018 · · 4.3 km deep · released about 30 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Clark County 77 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
4:48 am PDT on 17 July 2018 ()
Where
14 km (9 mi) WNW of Sandy Valley, NV · earthquakes near Sandy Valley
Magnitude
M 2.0 (ml)
Depth
4.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Clark County, 77 km ENE
Nearest mapped fault
Pahrump fault, 25 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2999 days ago

A magnitude 2.0 earthquake was recorded 14 km (9 mi) WNW of Sandy Valley, NV, at 4:48 am PDT on 17 July 2018 (11:48 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 30 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 32× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 30 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 4.5 on 2018-07-05 — about 5,600 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record since 1900 lists no earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km.

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 35.8832, -115.7661. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection from the epicentre
Clark County, NV 77 km (48 mi) ENE earthquakes near Clark County
San Bernardino County, CA 120 km (75 mi) SSW earthquakes near San Bernardino County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 9km SE of Tecopa, CA
  2. 2.1 17km ENE of Shoshone, CA
  3. 2.1 11 km S of Enterprise, Nevada
  4. 2.2 38 km SSE of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  5. 1.6 38 km S of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  6. 1.5 17 km S of Goodsprings, Nevada
  7. 2.3 18km SW of Primm, NV
  8. 2.2 19km SW of Primm, NV
  9. 1.9 25km E of Tecopa, CA
  10. 2.2 18km SW of Primm, NV
  11. 2.3 21km SW of Primm, NV
  12. 2.1 29km NNE of Baker, CA
  13. 2.1 37 km SSE of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  14. 2.2 38 km SSE of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  15. 2.3 14 km WNW of Sandy Valley, 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.

On USGS

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