QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.0ml

12 km W of Isla Vista, California

· 1.8 km deep · released about 1,100 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 12 kmVentura County 80 kmSan Luis Obispo County 114 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 3.0 (ml)
Depth
1.8 km below the surface
Felt
23 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 12 km NNW
Nearest mapped fault
Pitas Point fault, 6 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3342 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 23 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,100 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 320,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 14,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 10,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.0 about 1,100 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 34.4323, -119.9998. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 12 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 114 km (71 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kern County, CA 154 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 14km SSE of Santa Barbara, CA
  2. 1.8 15km SSE of Santa Barbara, CA
  3. 1.7 3km ENE of Lompoc, CA
  4. 2.4 7km NW of Los Alamos, CA
  5. 2.3 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  6. 2.0 10km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  7. 2.5 10km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  8. 2.3 10km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  9. 2.3 11km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  10. 2.3 11km E of Los Olivos, CA
  11. 2.4 1km WSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  12. 1.8 12km W of Isla Vista, CA
  13. 2.2 15km NW of Goleta, CA
  14. 2.2 13km W of Isla Vista, CA
  15. 3.8 13km W of Isla Vista, 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — it released about 35 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.