QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

1 km ESE of Valley Ranch, California

· 7.2 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sierra County 18 kmPlumas County 37 kmNevada County 52 kmPlacer County 76 kmYuba County 85 kmButte County 90 kmStorey County 94 kmCarson City 95 kmEl Dorado County 106 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
7.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sierra County, 18 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1102 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 39.7354, -120.5536. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sierra County, CA 18 km (11 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Plumas County, CA 37 km (23 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Nevada County, CA 52 km (32 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Placer County, CA 76 km (47 mi) N of here earthquakes near Placer County
Yuba County, CA 85 km (53 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Butte County, CA 90 km (56 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

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

  1. 2.3 4 km S of Cromberg, CA
  2. 2.4 17 km N of Truckee, CA
  3. 1.5 9 km SSE of Sierraville, California
  4. 1.7 4 km SW of Sierra Brooks, California
  5. 1.7 7 km ENE of East Quincy, California
  6. 2.2 4 km NNW of Spring Garden, CA
  7. 2.2 5 km NNE of East Quincy, CA
  8. 1.5 13 km NE of Lake Davis, California
  9. 3.4 4 km ENE of East Quincy, CA
  10. 2.0 4 km SW of Whitehawk, California
  11. 2.2 9 km SE of Meadow Valley, CA
  12. 1.6 Northern California
  13. 1.9 6 km S of Sierraville, California
  14. 1.8 6 km S of Sierraville, California
  15. 1.5 4 km NW of Cold 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 4.7 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.