Earthquake near Huntington Beach, 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 Huntington Beach, 9 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: Newport Beach, Seal Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Rossmoor.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 8 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1933 Long Beach, California Earthquake · 7 km ENE of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
2. 5.9 The 1987 Whittier Narrows, California Earthquake · 50 km N of this epicentre Oct 1, 1987
3. 5.4 5km S of Chino Hills, CA · 47 km NE of this epicentre Jul 29, 2008
4. 5.3 7km W of Newport Beach, CA · 7 km E of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
5. 5.1 The 1941 Torrance-Gardena, California Earthquakes (Second Event) · 26 km NW of this epicentre Nov 14, 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 33.6147, -118.0737. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.7 19km NE of Avalon, CA 23:18 UTC
2. 1.5 1km NNW of Florence-Graham, CA 18:43 UTC
3. 2.5 8km SSE of San Pedro, CA 13:50 UTC
4. 1.5 4km WNW of Willowbrook, CA 12:32 UTC
5. 2.2 3km ENE of North Tustin, CA 01:25 UTC
6. 1.7 15km SW of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 04:40 UTC
7. 1.5 2km NW of Lennox, CA 02:39 UTC
8. 1.7 6km SW of Signal Hill, CA 22:14 UTC
9. 1.6 6km S of MacArthur Park, CA 16:22 UTC
10. 1.8 4km WSW of Huntington Beach, CA 17:45 UTC
11. 1.8 0km WNW of View Park-Windsor Hills, CA 12:49 UTC
12. 1.7 0km SSE of View Park-Windsor Hills, CA 13:26 UTC
13. 1.7 6km WSW of Huntington Beach, CA 02:55 UTC
14. 2.0 5km NNW of Yorba Linda, CA 18:33 UTC
15. 1.6 2km WSW of San Pedro, CA 06:39 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 09:49 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.