QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

4 km NE of Indian Hills, Nevada

· 8.1 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Carson City 4 kmDouglas County 26 kmStorey County 40 kmLyon County 48 kmAlpine County 55 kmEl Dorado County 78 kmSierra County 84 kmPlacer County 85 kmNevada County 91 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
8.1 km below the surface
Felt
343 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Carson City, 4 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1865 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 343 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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 39.1163, -119.7431. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Carson City, NV 4 km (3 mi) S of here earthquakes near Carson City
Douglas County, NV 26 km (16 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Storey County, NV 40 km (25 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Lyon County, NV 48 km (30 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Alpine County, CA 55 km (34 mi) N of here earthquakes near Alpine County
El Dorado County, CA 78 km (48 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near El Dorado County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 10 km S of Sparks, Nevada
  2. 1.7 9 km WNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  3. 1.5 6 km NNE of Fish Springs, Nevada
  4. 2.6 8km N of Truckee, CA
  5. 2.0 3km E of Truckee, CA
  6. 1.9 3 km N of Reno, Nevada
  7. 1.8 3 km N of Reno, Nevada
  8. 3.0 9km S of Truckee, CA
  9. 1.7 8 km WNW of Carson City, Nevada
  10. 2.2 8km NE of Markleeville, CA
  11. 2.2 15km NNW of Incline Village-Crystal Bay, NV
  12. 1.5 Northern California
  13. 1.9 4 km S of Dayton, Nevada
  14. 2.3 8km NE of Markleeville, CA
  15. 1.5 7 km N of Incline Village, 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 2020-03-21 — it released about 89 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.