QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

9 km N of Kirkwood, California

· 14 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 29 kmDouglas County 41 kmEl Dorado County 41 kmCarson City 49 kmAmador County 64 kmPlacer County 65 kmLyon County 79 kmCalaveras County 79 kmNevada County 84 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 29 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2012 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 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.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. 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.

Where

Epicentre 38.7856, -120.0561. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 29 km (18 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 41 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
El Dorado County, CA 41 km (26 mi) E of here earthquakes near El Dorado County
Carson City, NV 49 km (30 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Amador County, CA 64 km (40 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Amador County
Placer County, CA 65 km (41 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Placer 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. 2.9 10km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  2. 2.1 9km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  3. 2.0 9km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  4. 2.5 9km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  5. 1.9 10km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  6. 1.9 10km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  7. 2.9 4km SSE of Markleeville, CA
  8. 1.9 10km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  9. 2.0 10km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  10. 2.3 10km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  11. 2.4 9km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  12. 2.3 9km SE of Dollar Point, CA
  13. 1.6 8 km SE of Dollar Point, California
  14. 1.6 8 km WNW of Glenbrook, Nevada
  15. 2.7 10km SE of Dollar Point, 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 4.5 on 2020-03-21 — it released about 32,000 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.