QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.9mw

20km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 11 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 59 kmSan Diego County 74 kmRiverside County 80 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 3.9 (mw)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
358 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Imperial County, 59 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1553 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 358 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 15,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 680× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 480× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 23× more

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 33.0140, -115.9867. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 59 km (37 mi) W of here earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA 74 km (46 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA 80 km (49 mi) S of here earthquakes near Riverside County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 11km SSW of Salton City, CA
  2. 1.5 10km SSW of Salton City, CA
  3. 1.6 10km SSW of Salton City, CA
  4. 1.6 12km WNW of Imperial, CA
  5. 2.8 16km ESE of Julian, CA
  6. 1.8 25km ENE of Pine Valley, CA
  7. 1.6 11km WSW of Niland, CA
  8. 1.9 15km ESE of Julian, CA
  9. 1.7 20km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX
  10. 2.0 13km ESE of Julian, CA
  11. 2.0 8km NE of Imperial, CA
  12. 1.7 8km NE of Imperial, CA
  13. 1.8 8km NE of Imperial, CA
  14. 1.7 8km NE of Imperial, CA
  15. 1.5 8km NE of Imperial, 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 4.3 on 2016-09-27 — it released about 4.3 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.