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, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 9 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In Huntington Beach, 4 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.

Likely felt in: Huntington Beach 4 km, intensity II · Newport Beach 9 km, intensity II · Costa Mesa 10 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 27 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 560,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 390,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 35× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 27 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 9 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1933 Long Beach, California Earthquake · 2 km ENE of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
2. 5.9 The 1987 Whittier Narrows, California Earthquake · 49 km N of this epicentre Oct 1, 1987
3. 5.4 5km S of Chino Hills, CA · 43 km NNE of this epicentre Jul 29, 2008
4. 5.3 7km W of Newport Beach, CA · 2 km E of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
5. 5.2 8km ENE of Trabuco Canyon, CA · 48 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 33.6253, -118.0205. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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. 1.7 2km E of Foothill Ranch, CA 04:52 UTC
2. 1.8 5km ENE of Coto De Caza, CA 02:38 UTC
3. 1.8 4km WSW of Irvine, CA 02:37 UTC
4. 1.5 24km SW of Dana Point, CA 05:56 UTC
5. 1.8 1km NNW of Rolling Hills Estates, CA 21:33 UTC
6. 1.7 2km SSW of Yorba Linda, CA 22:32 UTC
7. 1.5 1km NE of Pico Rivera, CA 01:01 UTC
8. 2.0 4km E of Lennox, CA 06:53 UTC
9. 1.5 4km WNW of Willowbrook, CA 04:17 UTC
10. 2.7 2km ENE of La Habra, CA 15:21 UTC
11. 2.0 2km S of Newport Beach, CA 22:01 UTC
12. 1.6 1km NNE of Huntington Park, CA 03:59 UTC
13. 1.7 9km SW of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 08:51 UTC
14. 1.6 8km ESE of North Tustin, CA 08:30 UTC
15. 1.6 12km NE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 10:41 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:50 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.