Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 1.6ml
California-Nevada border region
Yes. A magnitude 1.6 earthquake was recorded in the California-Nevada border region, at 11:50 pm PST on 14 December 2020 (07:50 UTC), 7.2 km deep. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 1.6 (ml)
- Depth
- 7.2 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Mineral County, 51 km NNW
- Nearest mapped fault
- Benton Spring fault, 15 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 · we first saw it 2159 days ago
Earthquake alerts for Hawthorne, NV
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Hawthorne, NV. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
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 9 km (6 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 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.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
- 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 6.5 on 2020-05-15 — about 22,000,000 times the energy of this one.
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
Epicentre 38.1327, -118.0977. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mineral County, NV | 51 km (32 mi) | NNW | earthquakes near Mineral County |
| Esmeralda County, NV | 57 km (35 mi) | SE | earthquakes near Esmeralda County |
| Mono County, CA | 72 km (45 mi) | WSW | earthquakes near Mono County |
| Lyon County, NV | 138 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.
- 1.8 26 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 3.1 26 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 2.1 California-Nevada border region
- 1.6 27 km SSE of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 27 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 38 km N of Dyer, Nevada
- 1.7 10 km NE of Mina, Nevada
- 1.7 26 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 7 km NNE of Mina, Nevada
- 2.5 26 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 26 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 27 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 1.6 26 km S of Mina, Nevada
- 2.3 24 km SSE of Mina, Nevada
- 1.7 27 km S of Mina, 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.
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.