QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

2km ESE of El Centro, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 34 kmRiverside County 114 kmSan Diego County 118 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Imperial County, 34 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2985 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 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 32.7822, -115.5420. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 34 km (21 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 114 km (71 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 118 km (74 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 13km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  2. 2.3 13km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  3. 2.7 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  4. 2.2 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  5. 1.7 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  6. 1.6 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  7. 1.6 8km WSW of Progreso, B.C., MX
  8. 1.7 4km NNE of Heber, CA
  9. 1.8 13km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX
  10. 1.6 25km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 1.8 18km S of Bombay Beach, CA
  12. 2.0 18km S of Bombay Beach, CA
  13. 1.5 15km WSW of Niland, CA
  14. 1.5 4km SW of Imperial, CA
  15. 2.2 5km SW 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 4.0 on 2016-07-31 — it released about 6,200 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.