QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0ml

6 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada

· 7.1 km deep · released about 30 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 43 kmSierra County 48 kmCarson City 55 kmNevada County 78 kmPlumas County 84 kmDouglas County 85 kmPlacer County 90 kmLyon County 94 kmEl Dorado County 105 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 2.0 (ml)
Depth
7.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Storey County, 43 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1208 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 30 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 32× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 30 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 39.6214, -119.9663. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 43 km (27 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Sierra County, CA 48 km (30 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Carson City, NV 55 km (34 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Carson City
Nevada County, CA 78 km (48 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Plumas County, CA 84 km (52 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Douglas County, NV 85 km (53 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Douglas County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 13 km NNE of Virginia City, Nevada
  2. 1.8 Nevada
  3. 2.0 12 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  4. 2.0 4 km WSW of Tahoe Vista, CA
  5. 2.4 4 km N of Dollar Point, CA
  6. 1.5 10 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  7. 1.6 16 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  8. 1.9 10 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  9. 2.5 Nevada
  10. 1.6 7 km S of Cold Springs, Nevada
  11. 2.0 Nevada
  12. 2.6 5 km SSE of Floriston, California
  13. 2.5 13 km SSW of Loyalton, CA
  14. 1.5 Nevada
  15. 2.8 10 km NNW of Virginia City, 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 4.7 on 2021-05-07 — it released about 9,400 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.