QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.6mlr

24km ESE of Ridgecrest, CA

· 3.8 km deep · released about 110 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 115 kmKern County 119 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 4.6 (mlr)
Depth
3.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Inyo County, 115 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2578 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 110 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 1,600× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 70× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 50× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.6 about 110 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 230× more

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 35.5303, -117.4313. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 115 km (71 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 119 km (74 mi) E of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Bernardino County, CA 136 km (85 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.4 22km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  2. 3.4 18km NNE of Ridgecrest, CA
  3. 3.0 24km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  4. 3.6 18km E of Little Lake, CA
  5. 3.2 17km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  6. 3.7 15km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  7. 3.8 17km S of Searles Valley, CA
  8. 3.7 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  9. 3.5 14km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  10. 3.3 18km W of Searles Valley, CA
  11. 3.8 18km E of Little Lake, CA
  12. 3.5 15km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  13. 3.5 20km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  14. 3.6 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  15. 3.2 16km ESE of Little Lake, 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 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — it released about 6,200 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.