QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

4km W of Imperial, CA

· 15 km deep · released about 2.4 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 33 kmRiverside County 105 kmSan Diego County 110 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
40 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Imperial County, 33 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1558 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 40 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.4 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 70,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.4 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.1× 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 32.8438, -115.6158. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 33 km (20 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 105 km (65 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 110 km (68 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 8km SW of Niland, CA
  2. 2.3 17km WNW of Westmorland, CA
  3. 1.9 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  4. 1.9 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  5. 1.8 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  6. 2.1 7km SW of Niland, CA
  7. 1.6 8km SW of Niland, CA
  8. 3.0 5km W of Imperial, CA
  9. 1.8 4km SSW of Heber, CA
  10. 1.6 18km S of Salton City, CA
  11. 1.7 17km S of Salton City, CA
  12. 2.0 16km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  13. 1.7 10km NW of Calipatria, CA
  14. 1.5 11km NW of Calipatria, CA
  15. 1.7 3km ENE of Westmorland, 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 4.0 on 2016-07-31 — it released about 6.9 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.