QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

12 km NE of Chilcoot-Vinton, California

· 4.9 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 54 kmPlumas County 67 kmStorey County 68 kmCarson City 87 kmNevada County 91 kmWashoe County 98 kmLassen County 103 kmPlacer County 109 kmDouglas County 117 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
4.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sierra County, 54 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2742 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 7.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 39.8975, -120.0476. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 54 km (34 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Plumas County, CA 67 km (42 mi) E of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Storey County, NV 68 km (42 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 87 km (54 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Nevada County, CA 91 km (57 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Washoe County, NV 98 km (61 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Washoe County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 14 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  2. 1.5 8 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  3. 1.5 Nevada
  4. 1.5 13 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  5. 2.8 9 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  6. 1.8 9 km N of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  7. 1.6 8 km N of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  8. 1.7 9 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  9. 2.3 15km SE of Honey Lake, CA
  10. 1.9 9 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  11. 1.8 9 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  12. 2.2 8 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  13. 2.0 8km SSW of Chilcoot-Vinton, CA
  14. 1.6 8 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  15. 1.6 2 km W of Sun 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.5 on 2016-08-04 — it released about 21,000 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.