Earthquake near Carson City, NV

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In Carson City, 10 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Dayton, Johnson Lane, Indian Hills, East Valley, Minden, Gardnerville.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 4.5 on 2020-03-21 — about 22,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 11 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 Near Fernley, Nevada · 48 km NNE of this epicentre Apr 24, 1914
2. 6.1 22 km SSE of Stagecoach, Nevada · 29 km E of this epicentre Jun 25, 1933
3. 6.1 4 km S of Carter Springs, Nevada · 37 km S of this epicentre Sep 12, 1994
4. 6.0 Near Reno, Nevada · 40 km NNW of this epicentre Feb 18, 1914
5. 5.5 California-Nevada border region · 43 km ESE of this epicentre Jan 11, 1939

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 39.1554, -119.6541. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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. 2.3 4km SSE of Truckee, CA 05:14 UTC
2. 1.8 12 km E of Floriston, California 04:33 UTC
3. 1.9 1 km NE of Carnelian Bay, California 09:52 UTC
4. 1.8 4km WSW of Tahoe Vista, CA 09:48 UTC
5. 1.9 4km N of Dollar Point, CA 04:34 UTC
6. 1.9 4km WSW of Tahoe Vista, CA 23:27 UTC
7. 1.5 2 km N of Carter Springs, Nevada 10:50 UTC
8. 1.9 6 km SE of Silver Springs, Nevada 09:13 UTC
9. 1.5 Nevada 20:05 UTC
10. 1.5 Nevada 08:15 UTC
11. 1.5 5 km NNE of Carter Springs, Nevada 10:42 UTC
12. 1.6 4 km SSE of Floriston, California 06:15 UTC
13. 2.6 14km N of Kings Beach, CA 16:09 UTC
14. 3.0 14km N of Kings Beach, CA 16:09 UTC
15. 2.1 14km NNW of Incline Village-Crystal Bay, NV 17:30 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:31 UTC. 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.