QuakeIndex

quarry blast · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

16 km NNE of Apple Valley, California

· -1.1 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Bernardino County 89 kmLos Angeles County 116 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
-1.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Bernardino County, 89 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3421 days ago

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

USGS catalogues this as quarry blast, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.4 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 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 34.6397, -117.1197. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Bernardino County, CA 89 km (55 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County
Los Angeles County, CA 116 km (72 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Orange County, CA 123 km (76 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Orange County
Riverside County, CA 144 km (90 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Riverside County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 7km NNE of Lake Arrowhead, CA
  2. 1.5 14km NNE of Apple Valley, CA
  3. 1.6 9km N of Big Bear City, CA
  4. 3.2 10km NNE of Running Springs, CA
  5. 1.7 4km N of Big Bear City, CA
  6. 1.6 11km NE of Lake Arrowhead, CA
  7. 1.8 16km NNE of Apple Valley, CA
  8. 1.5 6km NNE of Running Springs, CA
  9. 3.5 2km E of Big Bear Lake, CA
  10. 1.9 5km N of Big Bear City, CA
  11. 2.1 4km E of Mountain View Acres, CA
  12. 1.8 11km ENE of Apple Valley, CA
  13. 1.8 17km NNE of Apple Valley, CA
  14. 1.5 20km E of Boron, CA
  15. 1.7 4km N of Big Bear City, 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 4.3 on 2016-02-20 — it released about 16,000 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.