QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

1 km ESE of C-Road, California

· 14 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 20 kmPlumas County 34 kmNevada County 54 kmPlacer County 78 kmYuba County 86 kmButte County 89 kmStorey County 96 kmCarson City 97 kmLassen County 107 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
Sierra County, 20 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1719 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 39.7566, -120.5656. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 20 km (13 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Plumas County, CA 34 km (21 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Nevada County, CA 54 km (34 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Placer County, CA 78 km (49 mi) N of here earthquakes near Placer County
Yuba County, CA 86 km (53 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Butte County, CA 89 km (56 mi) E of here earthquakes near Butte County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 Northern California
  2. 1.6 8 km SSE of Johnsville, California
  3. 1.6 7 km S of Plumas Eureka (historical), California
  4. 1.5 9 km SSE of Beckwourth, California
  5. 1.6 1 km NNE of Paxton, California
  6. 1.5 1 km WNW of Keddie, California
  7. 1.7 1 km W of Keddie, California
  8. 1.6 0 km E of Paxton, California
  9. 2.8 3km N of Greenhorn, CA
  10. 1.6 5 km NNW of Plumas Eureka (historical), California
  11. 1.5 1 km SW of Spring Garden, California
  12. 2.0 12km NW of Truckee, CA
  13. 2.2 4km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  14. 3.1 10km ESE of Loyalton, CA
  15. 2.3 4km S of Meadow Valley, 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 53,000 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.