QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

8 km E of Floriston, California

· 8.9 km deep · released about 43 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Carson City 32 kmStorey County 34 kmSierra County 55 kmDouglas County 62 kmNevada County 74 kmLyon County 76 kmPlacer County 79 kmEl Dorado County 87 kmAlpine County 88 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
8.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Carson City, 32 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2213 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 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 39.4044, -119.9237. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Carson City, NV 32 km (20 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Storey County, NV 34 km (21 mi) W of here earthquakes near Storey County
Sierra County, CA 55 km (34 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Douglas County, NV 62 km (38 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Nevada County, CA 74 km (46 mi) E of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Lyon County, NV 76 km (47 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 4km W of Tahoe Vista, CA
  2. 1.5 14 km SE of Sparks, Nevada
  3. 2.1 2 km NE of Sun Valley, Nevada
  4. 1.7 2 km NE of Sun Valley, Nevada
  5. 1.9 2 km NE of Sun Valley, Nevada
  6. 1.5 8 km NE of Truckee, California
  7. 2.1 Nevada
  8. 1.8 8 km WNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  9. 1.6 16 km NNW of Truckee, California
  10. 1.8 9 km WNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  11. 1.8 9 km WNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  12. 2.0 8 km NW of Virginia City, Nevada
  13. 1.5 12 km W of Virginia City, Nevada
  14. 2.4 9 km WNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  15. 1.9 4 km SSE 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 4,000 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.