QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

3 km WNW of Sierra City, California

· 8.0 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 13 kmNevada County 33 kmPlumas County 47 kmPlacer County 58 kmYuba County 68 kmButte County 80 kmEl Dorado County 90 kmCarson City 93 kmStorey County 100 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
8.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sierra County, 13 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1580 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 39.5841, -120.6704. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 13 km (8 mi) W of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Nevada County, CA 33 km (21 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Plumas County, CA 47 km (29 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Placer County, CA 58 km (36 mi) N of here earthquakes near Placer County
Yuba County, CA 68 km (42 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Butte County, CA 80 km (50 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

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

  1. 1.7 10 km NE of Cromberg, California
  2. 1.6 6 km SW of Cromberg, California
  3. 2.2 24 km W of Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
  4. 1.8 4 km NW of Spring Garden, California
  5. 2.5 13 km SSW of Loyalton, CA
  6. 2.1 9 km NNE of Truckee, CA
  7. 2.4 9km NNW of Loyalton, CA
  8. 1.6 9 km SSE of Sierraville, California
  9. 1.6 Northern California
  10. 1.6 Northern California
  11. 1.5 5 km SSW of Cromberg, California
  12. 2.2 17km WSW of Loyalton, CA
  13. 2.4 6km NW of Johnsville, CA
  14. 1.6 5 km WNW of Plumas Eureka, California
  15. 2.0 5 km NNW of Plumas Eureka (historical), California

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.