QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

11 km NNE of Little Grass Valley, California

· 7.2 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Plumas County 22 kmSierra County 43 kmNevada County 59 kmButte County 61 kmYuba County 70 kmPlacer County 85 kmLassen County 104 kmSutter County 109 kmTehama County 117 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
7.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Plumas County, 22 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 464 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 39.8131, -120.9214. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Plumas County, CA 22 km (13 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Plumas County
Sierra County, CA 43 km (27 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Nevada County, CA 59 km (37 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Nevada County
Butte County, CA 61 km (38 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Butte County
Yuba County, CA 70 km (44 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Yuba County
Placer County, CA 85 km (53 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Placer County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  2. 2.3 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  3. 3.2 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  4. 2.4 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  5. 2.1 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  6. 1.8 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  7. 2.0 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  8. 2.1 7 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  9. 2.1 7 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  10. 2.0 7 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  11. 2.5 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  12. 1.9 8 km NE of Lake Davis, CA
  13. 1.7 4 km NE of Canyondam, CA
  14. 1.9 3 km N of Canyondam, CA
  15. 2.0 19 km S of Johnsville, 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 5.5 on 2023-05-11 — it released about 930,000 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.