QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

14km E of Desert Hot Springs, CA

· 6.0 km deep · released about 13 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 41 kmSan Bernardino County 101 kmSan Diego County 111 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
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Riverside County, 41 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 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 33.9612, -116.3548. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 41 km (26 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Bernardino County, CA 101 km (63 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County
San Diego County, CA 111 km (69 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 138 km (86 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 6km SW of Idyllwild, CA
  2. 1.6 24km N of Yucca Valley, CA
  3. 2.1 14km NNE of Cabazon, CA
  4. 2.0 6km NNE of Banning, CA
  5. 1.7 12km NE of Coachella, CA
  6. 1.6 4km SSE of Banning, CA
  7. 1.6 9km NE of Indio, CA
  8. 2.0 17km NE of Indio, CA
  9. 1.9 9km NE of Indio, CA
  10. 1.9 25km NNW of Yucca Valley, CA
  11. 1.6 8km S of Idyllwild, CA
  12. 1.9 9km NNW of Anza, CA
  13. 1.9 5km N of Cabazon, CA
  14. 1.7 9km ESE of Big Bear City, CA
  15. 1.5 26km N of Yucca Valley, 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 4.4 on 2016-01-06 — it released about 9,100 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.