QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 1.9ml

50 km S of Silver Peak, Nevada

Yes. A magnitude 1.9 earthquake was recorded 50 km S of Silver Peak, Nevada, at 8:38 pm PDT on 20 October 2026 (03:38 UTC), less than 1 km deep. No felt reports to USGS yet. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.

· 0.0 km deep · released about 21 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Esmeralda County 53 kmInyo County 84 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 1.9 (ml)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Esmeralda County, 53 km N
Nearest mapped fault
Fish Lake Valley fault, 6 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 19 hours ago

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 15 km (9 mi) from the epicentre. 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.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 21 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 730,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 520,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 46× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 21 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 4.8 on 2022-01-06 — about 19,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

  1. 6.1 46km E of Big Pine, California · 20 km SW of this epicentre
  2. 5.7 37 km SSE of Goldfield, Nevada · 49 km ENE of this epicentre
  3. 5.1 39 km SSE of Goldfield, Nevada · 50 km E of this epicentre

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 37.3009, -117.6254. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection from the epicentre
Esmeralda County, NV 53 km (33 mi) N earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Inyo County, CA 84 km (52 mi) SSE earthquakes near Inyo County
Nye County, NV 127 km (79 mi) NE earthquakes near Nye County
Mono County, CA 130 km (81 mi) WNW earthquakes near Mono County
Tulare County, CA 158 km (98 mi) SW earthquakes near Tulare County

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

Aftershocks so far

No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.