Earthquake near Big Bear City, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 48 km (30 mi) from the epicentre. In Big Bear City, 6 km away, the estimate is intensity III (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.

Likely felt in: Big Bear City 6 km, intensity III · Big Bear Lake 10 km, intensity III · Lucerne Valley 18 km, intensity III · Lake Arrowhead 32 km, intensity II · Yucaipa 36 km, intensity II · Apple Valley 37 km, intensity II · Mentone 38 km, intensity II · Morongo Valley 39 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 170,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,400× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,200× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.1× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.4 on 2016-01-06 — about 57 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 28 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.3 The 1992 Landers, California Earthquake · 40 km ESE of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992
2. 6.3 The 1992 Big Bear, California Earthquake · 13 km S of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992
3. 6.2 3 km SE of San Bernardino, California · 45 km WSW of this epicentre Jul 23, 1923
4. 6.0 The 1986 North Palm Springs, California Earthquake · 42 km SSE of this epicentre Jul 8, 1986
5. 5.8 3km NE of Yucca Valley, California · 46 km ESE of this epicentre Jun 28, 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 34.3155, -116.8507. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.8 5km SSE of Banning, CA 17:39 UTC
2. 1.6 7km S of Redlands, CA 01:05 UTC
3. 1.6 23km N of Yucca Valley, CA 16:34 UTC
4. 1.7 4km ESE of Loma Linda, CA 14:31 UTC
5. 1.8 5km S of Redlands, CA 11:51 UTC
6. 1.6 2km N of Colton, CA 00:12 UTC
7. 1.9 13km NNE of Banning, CA 18:19 UTC
8. 1.7 22km N of Yucca Valley, CA 21:13 UTC
9. 1.6 3km S of Mentone, CA 14:28 UTC
10. 1.6 23km N of Yucca Valley, CA 22:23 UTC
11. 1.5 4km N of Cabazon, CA 03:58 UTC
12. 1.8 1km ENE of Banning, CA 17:05 UTC
13. 1.7 3km SE of Mentone, CA 17:41 UTC
14. 1.8 9km NNW of Big Bear Lake, CA 08:31 UTC
15. 2.3 16km NNE of Lucerne Valley, CA 06:10 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 07:03 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.