QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada

· 9.4 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 15 kmCarson City 28 kmDouglas County 56 kmLyon County 60 kmSierra County 74 kmAlpine County 87 kmNevada County 94 kmPlacer County 97 kmEl Dorado County 100 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
9.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Storey County, 15 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 975 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 39.4042, -119.6921. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 15 km (9 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 28 km (18 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carson City
Douglas County, NV 56 km (35 mi) N of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 60 km (37 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Sierra County, CA 74 km (46 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Alpine County, CA 87 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. 1.5 3 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  2. 2.3 3 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  3. 2.3 4 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  4. 1.6 3 km SSE of Virginia City, Nevada
  5. 2.2 11 km NNE of Tahoe Vista, CA
  6. 2.5 11 km NNE of Tahoe Vista, CA
  7. 1.9 17 km NNW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  8. 2.3 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  9. 2.1 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  10. 2.2 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  11. 2.9 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  12. 2.9 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  13. 2.2 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  14. 3.3 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  15. 1.6 5 km SSE of Floriston, California

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 11,000 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.