Earthquake near Huntington Beach, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In Huntington Beach, 5 km away, the estimate is intensity II (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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Seal Beach, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Rossmoor, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 15 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 1,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 730,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 65× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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.

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 10 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1933 Long Beach, California Earthquake · 7 km SE of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
2. 5.9 The 1987 Whittier Narrows, California Earthquake · 43 km N of this epicentre Oct 1, 1987
3. 5.4 5km S of Chino Hills, CA · 40 km NE of this epicentre Jul 29, 2008
4. 5.3 7km W of Newport Beach, CA · 7 km SE of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
5. 5.2 8km ENE of Trabuco Canyon, CA · 50 km E of this epicentre May 31, 1938

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 33.6797, -118.0467. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.2 0km ESE of Silver Lake, CA 22:55 UTC
2. 2.0 8km SSW of Huntington Beach, CA 19:59 UTC
3. 2.9 1km SE of Silver Lake, CA 10:16 UTC
4. 1.7 4km W of Pomona, CA 15:26 UTC
5. 1.6 5km ESE of North Tustin, CA 20:13 UTC
6. 2.1 2km WSW of Hermosa Beach, CA 02:58 UTC
7. 1.6 4km WNW of La Mirada, CA 08:30 UTC
8. 1.6 3km S of South Whittier, CA 08:27 UTC
9. 1.6 2km W of Walnut, CA 08:30 UTC
10. 1.8 9km S of Seal Beach, CA 18:05 UTC
11. 1.9 11km NNE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 23:40 UTC
12. 2.5 11km NNE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 08:49 UTC
13. 2.6 11km NNE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 14:29 UTC
14. 2.1 11km NNE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 07:20 UTC
15. 1.7 12km SSW of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 10:04 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 05:50 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.