QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

0 km S of Lake Davis, California

· 7.2 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 32 kmPlumas County 33 kmNevada County 68 kmPlacer County 92 kmStorey County 94 kmLassen County 95 kmButte County 99 kmYuba County 100 kmCarson City 101 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
7.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sierra County, 32 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1936 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 39.8666, -120.4774. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 32 km (20 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Plumas County, CA 33 km (20 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Nevada County, CA 68 km (42 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Placer County, CA 92 km (57 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Placer County
Storey County, NV 94 km (59 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Lassen County, CA 95 km (59 mi) S of here earthquakes near Lassen County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 9 km SSE of Beckwourth, California
  2. 1.6 1 km NNE of Paxton, California
  3. 1.5 1 km WNW of Keddie, California
  4. 1.7 1 km W of Keddie, California
  5. 1.6 0 km E of Paxton, California
  6. 2.8 3km N of Greenhorn, CA
  7. 1.6 5 km NNW of Plumas Eureka (historical), California
  8. 1.5 1 km SW of Spring Garden, California
  9. 2.2 4km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  10. 3.1 10km ESE of Loyalton, CA
  11. 1.5 4 km N of Greenhorn, California
  12. 2.8 15km WSW of Loyalton, CA
  13. 1.7 4 km WNW of Sierra City, California
  14. 1.5 3 km WNW of Sierra City, California
  15. 2.2 16km WSW of Loyalton, 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 4.7 on 2021-05-07 — it released about 19,000 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.