QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 1.8ml

31 km NNW of Benton, California

· 0.3 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mono County 25 kmMineral County 55 kmEsmeralda County 96 kmTuolumne County 114 kmLyon County 116 kmAlpine County 117 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
0.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Mono County, 25 km SW
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2067 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 38.0638, -118.6637. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mono County, CA 25 km (15 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Mono County
Mineral County, NV 55 km (34 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Mineral County
Esmeralda County, NV 96 km (60 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Tuolumne County, CA 114 km (71 mi) E of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Lyon County, NV 116 km (72 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Alpine County, CA 117 km (73 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alpine County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 40km NNE of Toms Place, CA
  2. 1.5 19km SE of Bodie, CA
  3. 1.5 32 km SSW of Mina, Nevada
  4. 1.9 33 km N of Dyer, Nevada
  5. 2.0 32 km N of Dyer, Nevada
  6. 2.2 35 km N of Benton, California
  7. 2.2 41km NNE of Toms Place, CA
  8. 1.6 34 km SSW of Mina, Nevada
  9. 1.9 35 km NNE of Benton, California
  10. 2.5 40km NNE of Toms Place, CA
  11. 1.5 26km E of Lee Vining, CA
  12. 1.6 40km NNE of Toms Place, CA
  13. 1.9 40km NNE of Toms Place, CA
  14. 3.2 17km SE of Bodie, CA
  15. 1.5 31km SE of Bodie, CA

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 5.6 on 2016-12-28 — it released about 500,000 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.