QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

18km W of Isla Vista, CA

· 9.9 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 11 kmVentura County 85 kmSan Luis Obispo County 111 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
9.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 11 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2644 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 11 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 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 34.4415, -120.0525. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 11 km (7 mi) S of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 85 km (53 mi) W of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 111 km (69 mi) SSE 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

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

  1. 1.5 14km W of Isla Vista, CA
  2. 2.6 18km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  3. 1.7 20km NNE of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA
  4. 1.9 22km SSE of Isla Vista, CA
  5. 2.2 19km SSE of Isla Vista, CA
  6. 1.9 18km SSE of Isla Vista, CA
  7. 1.8 21km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  8. 1.9 19km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  9. 2.1 21km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  10. 2.7 6km NNE of Los Alamos, CA
  11. 1.9 22km S of Solvang, CA
  12. 1.8 9km NE of Los Alamos, CA
  13. 2.5 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  14. 1.7 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
  15. 1.9 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — it released about 3,500 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.