QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

3 km ENE of Topaz, California

· 6.2 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 27 kmDouglas County 32 kmLyon County 50 kmCarson City 62 kmTuolumne County 80 kmStorey County 89 kmEl Dorado County 92 kmMineral County 94 kmMono County 96 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
6.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 27 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 717 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 38.6344, -119.4866. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 27 km (17 mi) E of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 32 km (20 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 50 km (31 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Carson City, NV 62 km (38 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Tuolumne County, CA 80 km (50 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Storey County, NV 89 km (56 mi) S of here earthquakes near Storey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 2 km N of Carter Springs, Nevada
  2. 1.8 3 km N of Carter Springs, Nevada
  3. 2.4 10 km NE of Walker, CA
  4. 1.6 3 km WSW of Coleville, California
  5. 1.5 1 km NNW of Walker, California
  6. 1.9 9 km SSE of Carter Springs, Nevada
  7. 3.0 10 km SSE of Carter Springs, Nevada
  8. 2.3 4 km NNE of East Valley, Nevada
  9. 1.5 10 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  10. 2.2 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  11. 1.5 10 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  12. 2.9 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  13. 1.5 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  14. 2.1 11 km ESE of Smith, Nevada
  15. 2.6 11 km ESE of Smith, 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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 2,800,000 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.