QuakeIndex

explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0ml

9 km E of Sparks, Nevada

· 0.0 km deep · released about 30 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 15 kmCarson City 44 kmLyon County 69 kmDouglas County 70 kmSierra County 76 kmNevada County 101 kmAlpine County 103 kmPlacer County 107 kmPlumas County 113 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
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Storey County, 15 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1061 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

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 39.5385, -119.6425. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 15 km (9 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 44 km (27 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Lyon County, NV 69 km (43 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Douglas County, NV 70 km (44 mi) N of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Sierra County, CA 76 km (47 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Nevada County, CA 101 km (63 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Nevada County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  2. 1.9 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  3. 2.2 10 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  4. 3.2 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  5. 2.0 12 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  6. 1.6 9 km NNE of Verdi, Nevada
  7. 1.6 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  8. 1.9 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  9. 3.0 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  10. 1.9 17 km SW of Nixon, Nevada
  11. 1.7 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  12. 2.6 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  13. 3.2 8 km NNE of Truckee, CA
  14. 1.7 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  15. 1.6 12 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 4.5 on 2020-03-21 — it released about 5,600 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.