Earthquake near Isla Vista, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In Isla Vista, 7 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: Goleta, Mission Canyon, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, Montecito, Solvang.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 9.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,600,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 99× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 9.6 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — about 3,800 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. 6.8 The 1925 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 17 km SE of this epicentre Jun 29, 1925
2. 5.8 Near Los Alamos, California · 47 km NW of this epicentre Jul 31, 1902
3. 5.7 Near Los Alamos, California · 33 km NW of this epicentre Jan 12, 1915
4. 5.5 10 km NE of Toro Canyon, California · 42 km ENE of this epicentre Jun 29, 1926
5. 5.5 The 1941 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 35 km ESE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1941

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 34.3952, -119.9397. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 12:27 UTC
2. 3.5 11km SE of Carpinteria, CA 06:38 UTC
3. 2.2 11km SE of Carpinteria, CA 06:25 UTC
4. 1.7 14km WSW of Isla Vista, CA 17:44 UTC
5. 2.0 17km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 10:00 UTC
6. 1.8 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 08:14 UTC
7. 2.9 22km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 08:07 UTC
8. 2.6 17km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 08:07 UTC
9. 2.3 17km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 08:00 UTC
10. 1.7 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 07:57 UTC
11. 1.6 18km S of Santa Barbara, CA 07:56 UTC
12. 2.2 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 16:56 UTC
13. 1.8 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 14:28 UTC
14. 1.7 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 11:32 UTC
15. 2.1 17km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 09:54 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 13:25 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.