25 km S of Mina, Nevada

Yes. A magnitude 1.5 earthquake was recorded 25 km S of Mina, Nevada, at 11:30 pm PST on 12 December 2020 (07:30 UTC), 9.1 km deep. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.

2020-12-13 07:30 UTC · 9.1 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

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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: 2020-12-13 07:30 UTC
Magnitude: M 1.5 (ml)
Depth: 9.1 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Nearest: Mineral County, 50 km NW
Nearest mapped fault: Benton Spring fault, 10 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
Status: Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS 2160 days ago · we first saw it 2160 days ago

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 4 km (2 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 6.5 on 2020-05-15 — about 32,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 29 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

6.8 The 1932 Cedar Mountain, Nevada Earthquake · 49 km N of this epicentre Dec 21, 1932
6.3 The 1934 Excelsior Mountains, Nevada Earthquake · 29 km WNW of this epicentre Jan 30, 1934
6.1 Near Tonopah Junction, Nevada · 19 km SSE of this epicentre Nov 21, 1910
5.6 Excelsior Mountains, Nevada (Foreshock) · 33 km WNW of this epicentre Jan 30, 1934
5.6 37 km N of Dyer, Nevada · 18 km S of this epicentre Aug 9, 1943

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

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Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction from the epicentre
Mineral County, NV	50 km (31 mi)	NW	earthquakes near Mineral County
Esmeralda County, NV	57 km (36 mi)	SE	earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Mono County, CA	77 km (48 mi)	WSW	earthquakes near Mono County
Lyon County, NV	137 km (85 mi)	NW	earthquakes near Lyon County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:23 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.