QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

12km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA

· 9.0 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 63 kmSan Diego County 69 kmRiverside County 73 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
9.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Imperial County, 63 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3421 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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.

Where

Epicentre 33.0777, -116.0333. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 63 km (39 mi) W of here earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA 69 km (43 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA 73 km (45 mi) S of here earthquakes near Riverside County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 11km NE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 1.9 26km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  3. 1.8 10km WSW of Niland, CA
  4. 2.0 14 km NE of Borrego Springs, California
  5. 1.5 18 km S of Salton City, California
  6. 1.5 3 km WSW of Imperial, California
  7. 2.0 5 km ENE of Westmorland, California
  8. 2.1 4 km WSW of Imperial, California
  9. 2.2 13 km ESE of Ocotillo, California
  10. 1.8 4 km SW of Imperial, California
  11. 1.5 4 km WSW of Imperial, California
  12. 2.1 4 km SW of Imperial, California
  13. 2.1 4 km SW of Imperial, California
  14. 2.0 California-Baja California border region
  15. 3.0 3 km WSW of Imperial, California

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 4.3 on 2016-09-27 — it released about 16,000 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.