QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

8km E of Vandenberg Village, CA

· 0.4 km deep · released about 6.8 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 37 kmSan Luis Obispo County 75 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
0.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 37 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2711 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 6.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.8 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 34.7183, -120.3775. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 37 km (23 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 75 km (46 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Ventura County, CA 121 km (75 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

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

  1. 1.6 10km SSE of Orcutt, CA
  2. 1.5 10km SSE of Orcutt, CA
  3. 2.3 6km E of Vandenberg Village, CA
  4. 1.9 3km NW of Vandenberg Village, CA
  5. 1.7 14km NNW of Isla Vista, CA
  6. 2.0 6km NNW of Los Olivos, CA
  7. 1.9 7km NNW of Los Olivos, CA
  8. 1.8 11km ENE of Santa Maria, CA
  9. 1.6 19km SSE of Solvang, CA
  10. 1.5 18km SSE of Solvang, CA
  11. 1.9 12km W of Isla Vista, CA
  12. 2.5 22km SW of Lompoc, CA
  13. 1.6 10km NNE of Los Alamos, CA
  14. 3.3 13km W of Isla Vista, CA
  15. 2.1 5km SSE of Santa Ynez, 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 14,000 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.