QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 6.4mw

Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

· 11 km deep · released about 60 kilotons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 96 kmKern 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 6.4 (mw)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
27543 reports · strongest reported intensity VIII
Measured shaking
intensity VIII (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
yellow
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Inyo County, 96 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 279 days ago

This was a strong earthquake. Damage is likely near the epicentre and it is felt over a wide area. 27543 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 60 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Ridgecrest, California 2019 M 7.1 11× the energy of this one
  2. Loma Prieta, California 1989 M 6.9 5.6× the energy of this one
  3. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2.8× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 6.4 about 60 kilotons of TNT
  5. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 this one released 7.9× more
  6. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 this one released 11× 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 35.7053, -117.5038. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 96 km (59 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 118 km (73 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 129 km (80 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
San Bernardino County, CA 153 km (95 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Bernardino 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. 2.2 14km W of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 2.6 15km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  3. 2.5 9km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  4. 2.5 10km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  5. 2.2 12km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  6. 2.2 12km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  7. 2.1 11km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  8. 2.9 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  9. 2.4 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  10. 3.5 15km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  11. 2.8 13km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  12. 2.7 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  13. 2.4 7km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  14. 2.4 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  15. 2.6 12km SW of Searles Valley, 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 4.2 on 2018-12-05.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.