Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 1.7ml
Nevada
Yes. A magnitude 1.7 earthquake was recorded in Nevada, at 8:09 pm PDT on 22 August 2021 (03:09 UTC), 9.2 km deep. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 1.7 (ml)
- Depth
- 9.2 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Mineral County, 47 km WSW
- Nearest mapped fault
- Gabbs Valley fault, 6 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 1908 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 8 km (5 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 4.3 on 2016-03-21 — about 7,900 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 23 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 6.8 The 1932 Cedar Mountain, Nevada Earthquake · 15 km S of this epicentre
- 5.5 10 km SW of Gabbs, Nevada · 8 km NNW of this epicentre
- 5.5 18 km S of Gabbs, Nevada · 6 km SE of this epicentre
- 5.5 28 km E of Gabbs, Nevada · 35 km ENE of this epicentre
- 5.5 32 km NE of Mina, Nevada · 21 km SSE 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 38.7406, -117.9520. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mineral County, NV | 47 km (29 mi) | WSW | earthquakes near Mineral County |
| Churchill County, NV | 93 km (58 mi) | NNW | earthquakes near Churchill County |
| Esmeralda County, NV | 111 km (69 mi) | SSE | earthquakes near Esmeralda County |
| Lyon County, NV | 112 km (70 mi) | WNW | earthquakes near Lyon County |
| Mono County, CA | 122 km (76 mi) | SW | earthquakes near Mono 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.
- 1.7 27 km NE of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 32 km ENE of Hawthorne, Nevada
- 1.5 21 km NE of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 17 km NW of Mina, Nevada
- 1.5 California-Nevada border region
- 3.4 32 km NW of Gabbs, Nevada
- 2.6 13 km NW of Mina, Nevada
- 2.9 19 km NE of Mina, Nevada
- 1.6 23 km E of Mina, Nevada
- 1.6 27 km NNW of Gabbs, Nevada
- 1.8 3 km SSW of Gabbs, Nevada
- 1.5 Nevada
- 1.5 21 km ESE of Hawthorne, Nevada
- 2.1 4 km NE of Gabbs, Nevada
- 1.9 27 km WNW of Gabbs, 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.