QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

6km WSW of Bakersfield, CA

· 17 km deep · released about 16 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 33 kmTulare County 103 kmKings County 105 kmVentura County 109 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
17 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 33 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3625 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 16 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 5.8 930,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 660,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 59× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 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 35.3395, -119.0890. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 33 km (20 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 103 km (64 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kings County, CA 105 km (65 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Ventura County, CA 109 km (68 mi) N of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Santa Barbara County, CA 124 km (77 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.2 9km ESE of Maricopa, CA
  2. 2.3 7km E of Oildale, CA
  3. 1.6 18km NNW of Pine Mountain Club, CA
  4. 1.6 26km NE of Arvin, CA
  5. 1.6 8km W of Buttonwillow, CA
  6. 2.2 9km N of Oildale, CA
  7. 1.7 12km NW of Grapevine, CA
  8. 1.9 5km ENE of Shafter, CA
  9. 1.8 18km NW of Grapevine, CA
  10. 1.8 27km NE of Arvin, CA
  11. 1.7 9km ESE of Maricopa, CA
  12. 1.8 22km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  13. 1.7 25km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  14. 1.9 25km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  15. 1.8 12km W of Rosedale, 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 2016-02-24 — it released about 38,000 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.