QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

16 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada

· 15 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Washoe County 72 kmStorey County 73 kmSierra County 92 kmPlumas County 98 kmCarson City 104 kmLassen County 106 kmPershing County 114 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
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Washoe County, 72 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 928 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 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 40.0882, -119.6752. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Washoe County, NV 72 km (44 mi) S of here earthquakes near Washoe County
Storey County, NV 73 km (46 mi) N of here earthquakes near Storey County
Sierra County, CA 92 km (57 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Plumas County, CA 98 km (61 mi) E of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Carson City, NV 104 km (65 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carson City
Lassen County, CA 106 km (66 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Lassen County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 12 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  2. 1.7 13 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  3. 1.6 13 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  4. 1.6 11 km SSW of Nixon, Nevada
  5. 1.5 10 km WNW of Nixon, Nevada
  6. 2.1 23 km E of Herlong, California
  7. 1.5 23 km ENE of Herlong, California
  8. 1.9 20 km E of Herlong, California
  9. 1.6 16 km WSW of Empire, Nevada
  10. 1.5 4 km ENE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  11. 1.5 13 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  12. 2.1 17 km SE of Honey Lake, CA
  13. 1.7 8 km N of Sutcliffe, Nevada
  14. 1.5 13 km WSW of Nixon, Nevada
  15. 1.5 5 km N of Spanish Springs, 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 4.5 on 2016-08-04 — it released about 30,000 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.