QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

7 km W of Mesa Vista, California

· 13 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 23 kmDouglas County 25 kmCarson City 39 kmEl Dorado County 57 kmLyon County 63 kmStorey County 75 kmPlacer County 78 kmAmador County 79 kmTuolumne County 89 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
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 23 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1831 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 38.8198, -119.8781. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 23 km (14 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 25 km (16 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Carson City, NV 39 km (24 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Carson City
El Dorado County, CA 57 km (35 mi) E of here earthquakes near El Dorado County
Lyon County, NV 63 km (39 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Storey County, NV 75 km (47 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Storey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  2. 1.5 29km SE of Markleeville, CA
  3. 1.6 26km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  4. 2.1 31km SE of Markleeville, CA
  5. 1.6 30km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  6. 2.2 32km SE of Markleeville, CA
  7. 2.1 30km SSW of Smith Valley, NV
  8. 1.6 33km SE of Markleeville, CA
  9. 1.6 29km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  10. 2.3 28km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  11. 3.3 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  12. 2.2 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  13. 2.1 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  14. 1.6 28km SE of Markleeville, CA
  15. 2.4 28km SE of Markleeville, 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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 5,600,000 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.