QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8ml

10 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada

· 6.4 km deep · released about 480 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 17 kmCarson City 27 kmDouglas County 55 kmLyon County 61 kmSierra County 72 kmAlpine County 86 kmNevada County 92 kmPlacer County 94 kmEl Dorado County 98 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 2.8 (ml)
Depth
6.4 km below the surface
Felt
83 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Storey County, 17 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 973 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 83 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 480 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 32,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 480 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 39.3942, -119.7142. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 17 km (11 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 27 km (17 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carson City
Douglas County, NV 55 km (34 mi) N of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 61 km (38 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Sierra County, CA 72 km (45 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Alpine County, CA 86 km (54 mi) N 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 15 km NNW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  2. 2.2 6 km NNW of Truckee, CA
  3. 1.6 17 km SW of Nixon, Nevada
  4. 1.6 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  5. 1.5 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  6. 2.3 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  7. 3.1 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  8. 1.5 Nevada
  9. 1.5 Nevada
  10. 1.7 7 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  11. 2.0 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  12. 3.6 Nevada
  13. 1.8 6 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  14. 2.4 7 km ESE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  15. 1.6 7 km ESE 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 350 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.