QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

11 km NNW of Virginia City, Nevada

· 8.5 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 15 kmCarson City 29 kmDouglas County 57 kmLyon County 61 kmSierra County 74 kmAlpine County 88 kmNevada County 94 kmPlacer County 97 kmEl Dorado County 101 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
297 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Storey County, 15 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 865 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 297 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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 39.4113, -119.6925. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 15 km (9 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 57 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 74 km (46 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

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

  1. 1.7 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  2. 2.8 7 km NE of Cold Springs, Nevada
  3. 1.6 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  4. 2.2 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  5. 1.8 12 km SE of Sparks, Nevada
  6. 1.6 9 km SSE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  7. 2.1 3 km SW of Tahoe Vista, CA
  8. 2.3 4 km NNE of East Valley, Nevada
  9. 1.6 19 km SE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  10. 2.0 9 km E of Sparks, Nevada
  11. 1.6 9 km SE of Silver Springs, Nevada
  12. 1.9 15 km of Incline Village-Crystal Bay, NV
  13. 2.5 4 km E of Truckee, CA
  14. 2.1 10 km SW of Nixon, Nevada
  15. 2.0 4 km NNE 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 89 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.