Earthquake near Silver Springs, NV

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 8 km (5 mi) from the epicentre. In Silver Springs, 10 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: Stagecoach, Fernley.

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.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
4. 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 5.7 on 2024-12-09 — about 730,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 8 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 Near Fernley, Nevada · 26 km NW of this epicentre Apr 24, 1914
2. 6.2 The 1954 Rainbow Mountain, Nevada Earthquake · 48 km E of this epicentre Jul 6, 1954
3. 6.1 22 km SSE of Stagecoach, Nevada · 27 km SW of this epicentre Jun 25, 1933
4. 5.9 21 km SSE of Fallon Station, Nevada · 47 km ESE of this epicentre Jul 6, 1954
5. 5.5 California-Nevada border region · 41 km S of this epicentre Jan 11, 1939

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 39.3662, -119.1230. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.3 22 km SW of Fallon, Nevada 01:34 UTC
2. 2.9 17 km SE of Silver Springs, Nevada 01:33 UTC
3. 3.6 18 km ESE of Silver Springs, Nevada 01:32 UTC
4. 5.7 20 km ESE of Silver Springs, Nevada 01:29 UTC
5. 1.5 8 km SSW of Dayton, Nevada 03:09 UTC
6. 2.0 9 km E of Sparks, Nevada 20:24 UTC
7. 1.8 16 km NE of Yerington, Nevada 21:28 UTC
8. 2.0 16 km NE of Yerington, Nevada 21:17 UTC
9. 2.2 10 km N of Stagecoach, Nevada 02:30 UTC
10. 1.7 9 km NNW of Stagecoach, Nevada 22:00 UTC
11. 1.8 9 km NNW of Stagecoach, Nevada 01:29 UTC
12. 1.6 20 km NNE of Yerington, Nevada 09:42 UTC
13. 2.6 22 km NNE of Yerington, Nevada 06:45 UTC
14. 1.6 18 km NW of Stagecoach, Nevada 23:59 UTC
15. 1.6 16 km NE of Yerington, Nevada 19:20 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:09 UTC. 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.