QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

10 km NW of Topaz Lake, Nevada

· 11 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Douglas County 16 kmAlpine County 22 kmCarson City 45 kmLyon County 47 kmStorey County 76 kmEl Dorado County 79 kmTuolumne County 87 kmAmador County 96 kmPlacer County 101 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Douglas County, 16 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2260 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 38.7615, -119.6271. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Douglas County, NV 16 km (10 mi) S of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Alpine County, CA 22 km (13 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Carson City, NV 45 km (28 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Lyon County, NV 47 km (29 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Storey County, NV 76 km (47 mi) S of here earthquakes near Storey County
El Dorado County, CA 79 km (49 mi) E 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

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

  1. 1.9 12 km SE of Topaz Ranch Estates, Nevada
  2. 1.5 9 km N of Kirkwood, California
  3. 1.9 4 km SSE of Dayton, Nevada
  4. 1.6 16 km NNW of Bridgeport, California
  5. 1.5 6 km NNE of Fish Springs, Nevada
  6. 1.9 4 km SSW of Smith Valley, Nevada
  7. 2.2 8km NE of Markleeville, CA
  8. 1.5 3 km NW of Topaz, California
  9. 2.0 6 km SE of Markleeville, California
  10. 1.6 2 km SSW of Coleville, California
  11. 1.6 California-Nevada border region
  12. 2.3 18km E of Markleeville, CA
  13. 1.9 4 km S of Dayton, Nevada
  14. 2.3 8km NE of Markleeville, CA
  15. 2.2 4 km S of Dayton, 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 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.