QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

14 km NE of Virginia City, Nevada

· 10 km deep · released about 43 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 3 kmCarson City 34 kmLyon County 54 kmDouglas County 57 kmSierra County 85 kmAlpine County 91 kmNevada County 106 kmPlacer County 109 kmEl Dorado County 110 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Storey County, 3 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1233 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 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 39.4191, -119.5486. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 3 km (2 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 34 km (21 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Lyon County, NV 54 km (33 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Douglas County, NV 57 km (36 mi) N of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Sierra County, CA 85 km (53 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Alpine County, CA 91 km (57 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Alpine County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  2. 1.9 6 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  3. 2.1 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  4. 1.9 Nevada
  5. 1.7 5 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  6. 2.2 5 km E of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  7. 1.7 4 km E of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  8. 2.1 5 km E of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  9. 1.6 5 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  10. 2.1 Nevada
  11. 3.0 5 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  12. 1.9 5 km E of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  13. 2.1 5 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  14. 2.3 4 km E of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  15. 2.6 4 km E of Spanish Springs, Nevada

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 4.5 on 2020-03-21 — it released about 4,000 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.