QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8mw

13km W of Isla Vista, CA

· 2.3 km deep · released about 7.1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 13 kmVentura County 80 kmSan Luis Obispo County 115 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 3.8 (mw)
Depth
2.3 km below the surface
Felt
423 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 13 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1543 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 423 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 24,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 760× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 15× 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 34.4200, -120.0015. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 13 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 115 km (72 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kern County, CA 155 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. 2.5 20km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  2. 1.6 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  3. 1.6 20km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  4. 1.7 18km W of Isla Vista, CA
  5. 1.6 8km E of Vandenberg Village, CA
  6. 1.7 14km N of Los Olivos, CA
  7. 2.2 22km WSW of Isla Vista, CA
  8. 1.8 14km NE of Los Olivos, CA
  9. 1.8 8km E of Vandenberg Village, CA
  10. 2.2 15km S of Carpinteria, CA
  11. 1.7 7km NW of Los Olivos, CA
  12. 3.0 15km SSW of Carpinteria, CA
  13. 1.8 5km SE of Santa Ynez, CA
  14. 1.8 6km SE of Santa Ynez, CA
  15. 1.7 12km NE of Goleta, 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 2.6 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.