QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

11 km SE of Smith Valley, Nevada

· 5.3 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lyon County 34 kmDouglas County 38 kmAlpine County 50 kmCarson City 65 kmMineral County 75 kmStorey County 83 kmMono County 95 kmTuolumne County 101 kmEl Dorado County 113 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lyon County, 34 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2955 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 38.7223, -119.2349. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lyon County, NV 34 km (21 mi) S of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Douglas County, NV 38 km (24 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Alpine County, CA 50 km (31 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Carson City, NV 65 km (41 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Mineral County, NV 75 km (46 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Mineral County
Storey County, NV 83 km (52 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Storey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 22 km ENE of Bridgeport, California
  2. 1.6 California-Nevada border region
  3. 1.8 29 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  4. 2.6 29 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  5. 2.3 8km SSE of Markleeville, CA
  6. 1.7 29 km ENE of Bridgeport, California
  7. 2.2 30 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  8. 1.6 27 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  9. 1.6 29 km WSW of Walker Lake, Nevada
  10. 1.6 28 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  11. 1.5 17 km NE of Yerington, Nevada
  12. 1.7 29 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  13. 1.6 7 km SSE of Topaz Ranch Estates, Nevada
  14. 1.5 27 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada
  15. 1.8 11 km SSW of Schurz, 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 710,000 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.