QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

9km NW of Los Olivos, CA

· 1.7 km deep · released about 590 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 25 kmSan Luis Obispo County 77 kmVentura County 104 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
1.7 km below the surface
Felt
13 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 25 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3258 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 13 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 590 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 26,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 18,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 590 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 34.7307, -120.1718. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 25 km (15 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 77 km (48 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Ventura County, CA 104 km (64 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  2. 1.9 17km W of Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA
  3. 2.4 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  4. 3.2 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  5. 1.5 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  6. 1.7 12km NE of Goleta, CA
  7. 2.1 30km S of Solvang, CA
  8. 2.2 12km S of Guadalupe, CA
  9. 2.7 8km SSW of Los Alamos, CA
  10. 1.8 9km W of Isla Vista, CA
  11. 1.8 10km SE of Santa Ynez, CA
  12. 1.7 8km ESE of Vandenberg Village, CA
  13. 1.7 4km S of Buellton, CA
  14. 1.8 12km NNW of Santa Barbara, CA
  15. 2.0 13km W of Isla Vista, 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 63 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.