QuakeIndex

explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

8 km ESE of Sparks, Nevada

· 2.7 km deep · released about 13 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Storey County 15 kmCarson City 41 kmLyon County 68 kmDouglas County 68 kmSierra County 74 kmNevada County 98 kmAlpine County 100 kmPlacer County 104 kmEl Dorado County 111 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
2.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Storey County, 15 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 58 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 13 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 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 840,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 75× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 39.5155, -119.6624. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Storey County, NV 15 km (9 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Storey County
Carson City, NV 41 km (25 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carson City
Lyon County, NV 68 km (42 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lyon County
Douglas County, NV 68 km (42 mi) N of here earthquakes near Douglas County
Sierra County, CA 74 km (46 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sierra County
Nevada County, CA 98 km (61 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Nevada County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 2 km NNW of Sun Valley, Nevada
  2. 1.9 1 km WNW of Sun Valley, Nevada
  3. 2.8 1 km WNW of Sun Valley, Nevada
  4. 1.8 1 km WNW of Sun Valley, Nevada
  5. 1.6 1 km NNW of Sun Valley, Nevada
  6. 2.1 11 km N of Kings Beach, CA
  7. 2.3 9 km NW of Verdi-Mogul, NV
  8. 1.7 5 km SSE of Floriston, California
  9. 2.4 4 km NW of Cold Springs, NV

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 13,000 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.