QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

25km SW of Lompoc, CA

· -0.2 km deep · released about 16 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 53 kmSan Luis Obispo County 104 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
-0.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 53 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2757 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 16 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 970,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 680,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 61× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 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 34.4595, -120.6145. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 53 km (33 mi) W of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 104 km (65 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 5km SSE of Los Alamos, CA
  2. 1.9 6km ENE of Lompoc, CA
  3. 1.9 28km WSW of Lompoc, CA
  4. 2.1 4km ESE of Orcutt, CA
  5. 2.1 21km S of Solvang, CA
  6. 1.8 5km NE of Lompoc, CA
  7. 2.9 41km WSW of Guadalupe, CA
  8. 2.0 7km ESE of Lompoc, CA
  9. 2.1 14km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  10. 2.6 24km SW of Lompoc, CA
  11. 2.3 38km WSW of Lompoc, CA
  12. 2.0 13km SW of Guadalupe, CA
  13. 2.4 42km SW of Lompoc, CA
  14. 2.0 3km ENE of Vandenberg Village, CA
  15. 2.3 26km SW of Lompoc, 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 6,000 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.