QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.1mw

12 km W of Isla Vista, California

· 2.3 km deep · released about 19 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 13 kmVentura County 80 kmSan Luis Obispo County 115 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 4.1 (mw)
Depth
2.3 km below the surface
Felt
1487 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 13 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3258 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 1487 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 19 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 9,100× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 410× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 290× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.1 about 19 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 39× more

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 34.4192, -120.0022. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 13 km (8 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 80 km (50 mi) W of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 115 km (72 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kern County, CA 155 km (96 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 15km SSE of Santa Barbara, CA
  2. 1.7 3km ENE of Lompoc, CA
  3. 2.3 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  4. 2.0 10km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  5. 2.5 10km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  6. 2.3 10km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  7. 2.3 11km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  8. 2.3 11km E of Los Olivos, CA
  9. 2.4 1km WSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  10. 1.8 12km W of Isla Vista, CA
  11. 2.2 15km NW of Goleta, CA
  12. 2.2 13km W of Isla Vista, CA
  13. 3.8 13km W of Isla Vista, CA
  14. 1.5 4km WSW of Los Alamos, CA
  15. 2.0 3km W of Carpinteria, 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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.