QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

14km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA

· 3.8 km deep · released about 13 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Diego County 52 kmRiverside County 78 kmImperial County 81 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
3.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Diego County, 52 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2984 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 13 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 840,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 75× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 33.0500, -116.2243. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Diego County, CA 52 km (32 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA 78 km (49 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
Imperial County, CA 81 km (50 mi) W of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.5 22km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 1.8 22km E of Julian, CA
  3. 2.5 5km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  4. 1.6 27km NNE of Ocotillo, CA
  5. 1.7 12km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 2.8 7km NW of Borrego Springs, CA
  7. 2.7 10km ENE of Borrego Springs, CA
  8. 1.7 19km N of Ocotillo, CA
  9. 1.6 20km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  10. 3.9 16km NNE of Borrego Springs, CA
  11. 2.5 16km NNE of Borrego Springs, CA
  12. 1.8 14km NE of Julian, CA
  13. 1.6 2km NNW of Julian, CA
  14. 1.7 27km WNW of Ocotillo, CA
  15. 1.6 18km SSW of Ocotillo Wells, 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 5.2 on 2016-06-10 — it released about 140,000 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.