Earthquake near Santa Barbara, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 14 km (9 mi) from the epicentre. In Santa Barbara, 17 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: Summerland, Toro Canyon, Montecito, Carpinteria, Mission Canyon, Goleta.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 17 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 5.8 870,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 55× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 17 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

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — about 2,100 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 9 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 The 1925 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 14 km WNW of this epicentre Jun 29, 1925
2. 5.5 30 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 33 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 18, 1926
3. 5.5 10 km NE of Toro Canyon, California · 29 km NNE of this epicentre Jun 29, 1926
4. 5.5 The 1941 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 10 km NE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1941
5. 5.2 9 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 38 km ESE of this epicentre Apr 18, 1928

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 34.2728, -119.6515. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.6 28km SW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 11:22 UTC
2. 2.4 29km SE of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA 23:06 UTC
3. 1.7 29km SW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 21:40 UTC
4. 1.6 29km SW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 21:01 UTC
5. 2.6 30km SW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 19:34 UTC
6. 1.7 6km ESE of Port Hueneme, CA 15:04 UTC
7. 2.4 17km SW of Port Hueneme, CA 04:17 UTC
8. 2.4 1km WSW of Santa Barbara, CA 14:58 UTC
9. 1.8 12km W of Isla Vista, CA 05:42 UTC
10. 2.2 15km NW of Goleta, CA 07:31 UTC
11. 2.2 13km W of Isla Vista, CA 01:39 UTC
12. 3.8 13km W of Isla Vista, CA 01:31 UTC
13. 1.9 8km NNE of Ventura, CA 03:57 UTC
14. 2.0 3km W of Carpinteria, CA 04:39 UTC
15. 2.2 20km S of Carpinteria, CA 15:06 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:28 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.