Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 1.8ml
52 km ESE of Beatty, Nevada
Yes. A magnitude 1.8 earthquake was recorded 52 km ESE of Beatty, Nevada, at 4:56 am PDT on 17 April 2021 (11:56 UTC), 11 km deep. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 1.8 (ml)
- Depth
- 11 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Inyo County, 102 km W
- Nearest mapped fault
- Rock Valley fault, under 1 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 2036 days ago
Earthquake alerts for Beatty, NV
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Beatty, 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 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.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
- 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.1 on 2017-07-17 — about 2,800 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 10 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 5.9 64 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada · 49 km NNE of this epicentre
- 5.9 63 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada · 49 km NNE of this epicentre
- 5.8 47 km ESE of Beatty, Nevada · 6 km NNW of this epicentre
- 5.7 64 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada · 50 km NNE of this epicentre
- 5.7 65 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada · 50 km NNE of this epicentre
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 36.6588, -116.2640. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inyo County, CA | 102 km (64 mi) | W | earthquakes near Inyo County |
| Clark County, NV | 122 km (76 mi) | ESE | earthquakes near Clark County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
53 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
- 1.7 52 km W of Indian Springs, Nevada
- 2.0 21 km NE of Furnace Creek, California
- 1.6 30 km WNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
- 1.6 29 km WNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
- 2.6 51 km ESE of Beatty, Nevada
- 1.6 California-Nevada border region
- 1.5 47 km ESE of Beatty, Nevada
- 2.3 33 km WNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
- 1.5 29 km NW of Indian Springs, Nevada
- 2.2 51 km ESE of Beatty, Nevada
- 2.4 30 km NNW of Pahrump, Nevada
- 1.7 25 km NNE of Pahrump, Nevada
- 1.8 20km E of Furnace Creek, CA
- 1.5 26 km NNE of Pahrump, Nevada
- 1.6 39 km WNW of Indian Springs, 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.