QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

16km S of Bombay Beach, CA

· 5.4 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 38 kmRiverside County 64 kmSan Diego County 101 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
5.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Imperial County, 38 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2160 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 11 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 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 970,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 86× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 33.2020, -115.7170. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 38 km (24 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 64 km (40 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 101 km (63 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 18km NNE of Ocotillo, CA
  2. 2.1 5km NE of Westmorland, CA
  3. 1.5 18km NNE of Ocotillo, CA
  4. 2.5 18km S of Bombay Beach, CA
  5. 1.7 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 2.4 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  7. 2.1 11km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  8. 1.5 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  9. 1.9 11km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  10. 1.9 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 2.4 10km NW of Calipatria, CA
  12. 1.7 19km NNE of Ocotillo, CA
  13. 1.6 9km SW of Salton City, CA
  14. 1.8 11km SW of Niland, CA
  15. 1.7 9km ENE of El Centro, 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 4.9 on 2020-10-01 — it released about 68,000 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.