QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

3 km W of Topaz Lake, Nevada

· 13 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Alpine County 21 kmDouglas County 24 kmLyon County 49 kmCarson City 53 kmTuolumne County 82 kmStorey County 83 kmEl Dorado County 83 kmAmador County 97 kmCalaveras County 102 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
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Alpine County, 21 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 318 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 5.7 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 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 38.6940, -119.5806. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Alpine County, CA 21 km (13 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Alpine County
Douglas County, NV 24 km (15 mi) S of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Lyon County, NV 49 km (31 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Carson City, NV 53 km (33 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carson City
Tuolumne County, CA 82 km (51 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Tuolumne County
Storey County, NV 83 km (52 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

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

  1. 1.6 4 km SW of Walker, California
  2. 1.6 13 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  3. 2.0 14 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  4. 2.0 6 km SSW of Smith Valley, Nevada
  5. 1.7 3 km SE of East Valley, Nevada
  6. 2.7 3 km W of Walker, CA
  7. 1.9 15 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  8. 1.9 14 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  9. 2.3 15 km SE of Markleeville, CA
  10. 2.3 15 km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  11. 2.0 2 km SW of Walker, CA
  12. 1.6 5 km ENE of Johnson Lane, Nevada
  13. 1.8 6 km ESE of Markleeville, CA
  14. 2.2 18 km NE of Dardanelle, CA
  15. 1.9 20 km E of Markleeville, 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 6.0 on 2021-07-08 — it released about 5,200,000 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.