QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

4km S of Buellton, CA

· -0.1 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 15 kmSan Luis Obispo County 93 kmVentura County 101 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
-0.1 km below the surface
Felt
15 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 15 km ESE
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. 15 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 10 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 95× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 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 34.5778, -120.1973. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 15 km (9 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 93 km (58 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Ventura County, CA 101 km (62 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

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

  1. 1.7 19km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  2. 2.3 32km NNE of Goleta, CA
  3. 1.8 12km NNE of Los Olivos, CA
  4. 2.6 12km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  5. 2.1 13km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  6. 1.6 13km NNE of Los Alamos, CA
  7. 1.8 12km NNE of Goleta, CA
  8. 2.0 13km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  9. 2.0 8km ESE of Santa Ynez, CA
  10. 1.8 9km NNW of Santa Barbara, CA
  11. 1.5 11km NNW of Montecito, CA
  12. 1.7 14km NE of Los Olivos, CA
  13. 2.0 31 km SW of Lompoc, CA
  14. 2.6 13km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  15. 2.1 5km SSW of Orcutt, 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 2017-10-26 — it released about 9,400 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.