Earthquake near Lake Isabella, 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 43 km (27 mi) from the epicentre. In Lake Isabella, 14 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: Bodfish 15 km, intensity III · Wofford Heights 19 km, intensity III. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,500 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 230,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 10,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,200× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,500 lb of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.6× 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

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 15 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.3 The 1946 Walker Pass, California Earthquake · 38 km ENE of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
2. 5.7 12km NW of California City, California · 46 km SSE of this epicentre Jul 11, 1992
3. 5.6 19km N of Tehachapi, CA · 32 km SSW of this epicentre Jul 25, 1952
4. 5.6 14km NNW of Tehachapi, CA · 39 km SSW of this epicentre Jul 31, 1952
5. 5.5 22km N of Tehachapi, CA · 29 km SSW of this epicentre Jul 25, 1952

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 35.5678, -118.3312. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.5 16km WNW of Tehachapi, CA 06:00 UTC
2. 1.8 25km NNW of Tehachapi, CA 00:20 UTC
3. 1.8 26km SSW of Bodfish, CA 05:37 UTC
4. 1.6 25km SW of Little Lake, CA 02:06 UTC
5. 1.5 17km SSE of Bodfish, CA 01:07 UTC
6. 1.6 26km NE of Arvin, CA 15:07 UTC
7. 1.9 17km SSE of Bodfish, CA 23:45 UTC
8. 2.2 20km ESE of Bodfish, CA 07:48 UTC
9. 1.5 16km SSE of Bodfish, CA 10:27 UTC
10. 1.6 16km SSE of Bodfish, CA 10:18 UTC
11. 1.6 18km SSE of Bodfish, CA 17:19 UTC
12. 1.8 17km SSE of Bodfish, CA 02:06 UTC
13. 2.2 17km SSE of Bodfish, CA 01:29 UTC
14. 1.6 14km ESE of Lake Isabella, CA 03:58 UTC
15. 2.3 17km SSE of Bodfish, CA 19:34 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 18:43 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.