explosion · automatic estimate, may change
M 1.8ml
Earthquake near Spring Valley, NV
No earthquake was likely felt in Spring Valley in the 24 hours to 8:49 am PST (16:49 UTC). The last one was M 2.4, 20 km (12 mi) SSE, at 1:11 pm PDT on 27 August 2026, estimated intensity II (weak) in town. Every earthquake near Spring Valley
No: USGS classifies this as a explosion, not an earthquake. A magnitude 1.8 explosion was recorded 4 km (3 mi) south-southwest of Spring Valley, NV, at 12:36 pm PDT on 20 May 2024 (19:36 UTC), less than 1 km deep.
USGS: 4 km SSW of Spring Valley, Nevada
18 km (11 mi) S of Las Vegas, NV
- When
- 12:36 pm PDT on 20 May 2024 ()
- Where
- 4 km (3 mi) south-southwest of Spring Valley, NV · earthquakes near Spring Valley
- Magnitude
- M 1.8 (ml)
- Depth
- 0.5 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Clark County, 28 km NE
- Status
- Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 906 days ago
Earthquake alerts for Spring Valley, NV
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Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.
At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 14 km (9 mi) from the epicentre. In Spring Valley, 4 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.
Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Enterprise, Summerlin South, Paradise, Winchester, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas.
USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.
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.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
- 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.5 on 2018-07-05 — about 11,000 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists one earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km:
- 5.0 1 km SE of Boulder City, Nevada · 43 km ESE of this epicentre
Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.
Where
Epicentre 36.0747, -115.2721. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clark County, NV | 28 km (17 mi) | NE | earthquakes near Clark 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.
- 1.5 18 km E of Goodsprings, Nevada
- 1.7 12 km S of Boulder City, Nevada
- 1.8 14 km SSE of Mount Charleston, Nevada
- 1.7 10 km SSE of Blue Diamond, Nevada
- 1.6 14 km N of Summerlin South, Nevada
- 1.8 3 km WSW of Boulder City, Nevada
- 1.7 2 km NW of Enterprise, Nevada
- 1.7 15 km NW of Las Vegas, Nevada
- 1.7 2 km WNW of Whitney, Nevada
- 1.5 2 km NNW of Enterprise, Nevada
- 1.6 14 km NE of Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
- 1.6 11 km NNW of Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
- 1.8 7 km WSW of Henderson, Nevada
- 2.0 27 km E of Goodsprings, Nevada
- 1.7 12 km NNE of Summerlin South, 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.
On USGS
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.