QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5mw

11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada

· 8.8 km deep · released about 2.7 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 15 kmCarson City 29 kmDouglas County 56 kmLyon County 61 kmSierra County 73 kmAlpine County 88 kmNevada County 93 kmPlacer County 96 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 3.5 (mw)
Depth
8.8 km below the surface
Felt
940 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Storey County, 15 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 637 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 940 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× more

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 39.4074, -119.6995. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 15 km (10 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 29 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 61 km (38 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Sierra County, CA 73 km (45 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Alpine County, CA 88 km (55 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

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

  1. 2.3 4 km W of Tahoe Vista, CA
  2. 2.4 4 km W of Tahoe Vista, CA
  3. 1.5 3 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  4. 2.3 3 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  5. 2.3 4 km S of Virginia City, Nevada
  6. 1.6 3 km SSE of Virginia City, Nevada
  7. 2.2 11 km NNE of Tahoe Vista, CA
  8. 2.5 11 km NNE of Tahoe Vista, CA
  9. 1.9 17 km NNW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  10. 2.3 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  11. 2.1 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  12. 2.2 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  13. 2.9 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  14. 2.9 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, CA
  15. 2.2 8 km SSE of Dollar Point, 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 4.5 on 2020-03-21 — it released about 32 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.