QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

17 km N of Benton, California

· 10 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mono County 35 kmMineral County 60 kmEsmeralda County 78 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Mono County, 35 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1389 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 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.

Where

Epicentre 37.9753, -118.4850. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mono County, CA 35 km (22 mi) E of here earthquakes near Mono County
Mineral County, NV 60 km (38 mi) S of here earthquakes near Mineral County
Esmeralda County, NV 78 km (48 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Lyon County, NV 132 km (82 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Alpine County, CA 135 km (84 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Madera County, CA 140 km (87 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Madera County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 29 km SSE of Mina, Nevada
  2. 1.6 11km ENE of Mammoth Lakes, CA
  3. 1.9 Nevada
  4. 2.0 28 km SSE of Mina, Nevada
  5. 2.0 26 km SSE of Mina, Nevada
  6. 2.7 13km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA
  7. 1.6 25 km S of Hawthorne, Nevada
  8. 1.6 22 km S of Mina, Nevada
  9. 1.7 13 km NW of Benton, California
  10. 2.3 26km SE of Bodie, CA
  11. 2.2 31 km N of Dyer, Nevada
  12. 1.6 30 km N of Dyer, Nevada
  13. 1.7 29 km SSE of Mina, Nevada
  14. 2.4 California-Nevada border region
  15. 1.5 26 km NNW of Benton, 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 5.2 on 2020-04-11 — it released about 290,000 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.