QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.0mw

1km ENE of El Centro, CA

· 18 km deep · released about 14 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 33 kmRiverside County 113 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 4.0 (mw)
Depth
18 km below the surface
Felt
237 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Imperial County, 33 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 713 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 237 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 14 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 12,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 560× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 390× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.0 about 14 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 29× 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 32.7913, -115.5473. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 33 km (21 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 113 km (70 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 118 km (73 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

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

  1. 1.9 14km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  2. 1.7 17km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX
  3. 1.6 11km SW of Niland, CA
  4. 1.5 7km SW of Niland, CA
  5. 1.9 19km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 1.6 10km W of Calipatria, CA
  7. 1.5 9km W of Calipatria, CA
  8. 1.6 9km W of Calipatria, CA
  9. 2.0 5km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  10. 1.6 8km W of Calipatria, CA
  11. 1.7 10km W of Calipatria, CA
  12. 1.5 2km ESE of El Centro, CA
  13. 1.8 1km NNE of El Centro, CA
  14. 1.5 2km ESE of El Centro, CA
  15. 1.7 2km ESE of El Centro, 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 1.2 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.