QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

3 km N of Reno, Nevada

· 5.3 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 28 kmCarson City 45 kmSierra County 61 kmDouglas County 75 kmLyon County 80 kmNevada County 87 kmPlacer County 96 kmPlumas County 99 kmAlpine County 104 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
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Storey County, 28 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 939 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

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 39.5577, -119.8124. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 28 km (17 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 45 km (28 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carson City
Sierra County, CA 61 km (38 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Douglas County, NV 75 km (46 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 80 km (50 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Nevada County, CA 87 km (54 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

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

  1. 1.5 6 km NNE of Carson City, Nevada
  2. 1.6 6 km W of Dayton, Nevada
  3. 2.0 10 km E of Sparks, Nevada
  4. 1.6 2 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  5. 1.8 2 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  6. 2.0 12 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  7. 1.5 3 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  8. 2.1 6 km W of Tahoe Vista, CA
  9. 1.9 9 km ESE of Sparks, Nevada
  10. 1.5 9 km N of Lemmon Valley, Nevada
  11. 1.7 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  12. 1.5 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  13. 2.0 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  14. 1.6 11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada
  15. 3.2 11 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 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.