QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

16km SW of Buttonwillow, CA

· 4.3 km deep · released about 38 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 78 kmSan Luis Obispo County 78 kmKings County 89 kmSanta Barbara County 93 kmVentura County 112 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
4.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 78 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2825 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 38 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 390,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 25× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 38 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 35.2918, -119.5918. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 78 km (49 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 78 km (49 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kings County, CA 89 km (55 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Santa Barbara County, CA 93 km (58 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 112 km (70 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Tulare County, CA 127 km (79 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Tulare County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 10km WSW of Shafter, CA
  2. 1.6 29km WSW of Maricopa, CA
  3. 2.6 6km SW of Shafter, CA
  4. 2.5 10km SSW of Maricopa, CA
  5. 2.1 11km SSW of Maricopa, CA
  6. 1.9 6km WSW of Shafter, CA
  7. 1.6 6km WSW of Shafter, CA
  8. 2.3 17km NE of Taft, CA
  9. 1.7 3km ENE of Buttonwillow, CA
  10. 1.6 10km ESE of Simmler, CA
  11. 2.1 25km NW of Grapevine, CA
  12. 2.1 24km NW of Grapevine, CA
  13. 1.8 25km E of Maricopa, CA
  14. 1.8 6km SSW of Buttonwillow, CA
  15. 1.7 29km WSW of Maricopa, 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 4.9 on 2016-02-24 — it released about 16,000 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.