QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

3 km S of Virginia City, Nevada

· 4.9 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Carson City 16 kmStorey County 21 kmDouglas County 42 kmLyon County 48 kmAlpine County 74 kmSierra County 82 kmEl Dorado County 94 kmPlacer County 96 kmNevada County 97 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
4.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Carson City, 16 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 837 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 39.2774, -119.6440. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Carson City, NV 16 km (10 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Storey County, NV 21 km (13 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Douglas County, NV 42 km (26 mi) N of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 48 km (30 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Alpine County, CA 74 km (46 mi) N of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Sierra County, CA 82 km (51 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sierra County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  2. 3.3 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  3. 2.3 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  4. 1.5 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  5. 1.7 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  6. 1.6 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  7. 2.2 13 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada
  8. 1.7 16 km NNE of Yerington, Nevada
  9. 1.6 2 km N of Carter Springs, Nevada
  10. 1.8 3 km N of Carter Springs, Nevada
  11. 1.8 12 km SE of Sparks, Nevada
  12. 1.6 9 km SSE of Spanish Springs, Nevada
  13. 2.1 3 km SW of Tahoe Vista, CA
  14. 1.7 17 km NNE of Yerington, Nevada
  15. 2.3 4 km NNE of East Valley, 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 2020-03-21 — it released about 32,000 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.