QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

7km SE of Los Alamos, CA

· 2.3 km deep · released about 7.3 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 25 kmSan Luis Obispo County 80 kmVentura County 107 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
2.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 25 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3258 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 7.3 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.3 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 34.6900, -120.2313. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 25 km (15 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 80 km (50 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Ventura County, CA 107 km (67 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

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

  1. 1.9 24km SW of Lompoc, CA
  2. 2.1 27km SW of Lompoc, CA
  3. 1.8 8km E of Vandenberg Village, CA
  4. 1.8 25km SW of Lompoc, CA
  5. 1.7 7km NW of Los Olivos, CA
  6. 1.8 5km SE of Santa Ynez, CA
  7. 1.8 6km SE of Santa Ynez, CA
  8. 2.2 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  9. 1.9 17km W of Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA
  10. 2.4 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  11. 3.2 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  12. 1.5 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  13. 1.7 12km NE of Goleta, CA
  14. 2.1 30km S of Solvang, CA
  15. 2.2 12km S of Guadalupe, 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 5,100 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.