QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0ml

5 km ESE of Smith, Nevada

· 8.5 km deep · released about 30 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lyon County 27 kmDouglas County 32 kmAlpine County 49 kmCarson City 58 kmStorey County 76 kmMineral County 80 kmMono County 103 kmTuolumne County 105 kmEl Dorado County 110 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
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lyon County, 27 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 996 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 38.7879, -119.2698. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lyon County, NV 27 km (17 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Douglas County, NV 32 km (20 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Alpine County, CA 49 km (31 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Carson City, NV 58 km (36 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Storey County, NV 76 km (47 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Storey County
Mineral County, NV 80 km (50 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Mineral County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 12 km N of Walker, CA
  2. 2.2 3 km ENE of Topaz, California
  3. 1.6 14 km E of Topaz, California
  4. 1.6 9 km S of Carter Springs, Nevada
  5. 2.5 6 km NW of Walker, CA
  6. 1.5 3 km WSW of Coleville, California
  7. 1.9 9 km ESE of Markleeville, California
  8. 2.7 6 km NNW of Walker, CA
  9. 2.1 3 km NNW of Markleeville, CA
  10. 1.6 13 km E of Topaz, California
  11. 2.9 5 km WNW of Walker, CA
  12. 2.5 17 km WSW of Schurz, Nevada
  13. 2.5 5 km NNW of Walker, CA
  14. 1.5 17 km SSE of Walker, California
  15. 2.8 3 km W of Walker, CA

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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 1,000,000 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.