Earthquake near Apple Valley, 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 11 km (7 mi) from the epicentre. In Apple Valley, 16 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: Victorville, Spring Valley Lake, Lucerne Valley, Silver Lakes, Barstow Heights, Lenwood.

USGS catalogues this as quarry blast, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.3 on 2016-02-20 — about 12,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.6 7km ENE of Running Springs, CA · 44 km S of this epicentre Oct 16, 1999
2. 5.3 Near San Bernardino, California · 48 km S of this epicentre Sep 20, 1907
3. 5.3 6km WNW of Big Bear Lake, CA · 42 km SSE of this epicentre Aug 29, 1943
4. 5.3 1km N of Big Bear Lake, California · 46 km SSE of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992
5. 5.3 10km NNW of Big Bear City, California · 38 km SSE of this epicentre Nov 27, 1992

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 34.6328, -117.1062. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 9km ENE of Adelanto, CA 14:19 UTC
2. 2.2 35km NE of Lucerne Valley, CA 02:53 UTC
3. 1.7 6km ENE of Lake Arrowhead, CA 18:49 UTC
4. 1.8 4km E of Running Springs, CA 10:01 UTC
5. 1.7 36km NE of Lucerne Valley, CA 17:07 UTC
6. 1.6 15km NNE of Apple Valley, CA 23:09 UTC
7. 1.6 4km NNW of Barstow, CA 15:15 UTC
8. 2.3 27km ESE of Boron, CA 00:33 UTC
9. 1.9 9km ENE of Barstow, CA 10:54 UTC
10. 2.5 10km NE of Running Springs, CA 12:25 UTC
11. 2.1 9km NNW of Big Bear City, CA 04:32 UTC
12. 1.5 3km SW of Big Bear City, CA 04:30 UTC
13. 2.6 8km NNW of Big Bear City, CA 00:49 UTC
14. 1.7 11km NE of Running Springs, CA 00:23 UTC
15. 2.6 9km E of Running Springs, CA 00:01 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:50 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.