Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 6.4mw
Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence
Yes. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake was recorded in Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence, at 10:33 am PDT on 4 July 2019 (17:33 UTC), 11 km deep. 27,543 people have reported feeling it to USGS.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 6.4 (mw)
- Depth
- 11 km below the surface
- Felt
- 27,543 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
- Nearest mapped fault
- Little Lake fault, 19 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 325 days ago
Earthquake alerts for Searles Valley, CA
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Searles Valley, CA. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
This was a strong earthquake. Damage is likely near the epicentre and it is felt over a wide area.
At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 430 km (267 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.
Likely felt in: Searles Valley 11 km, intensity VII · Ridgecrest 18 km, intensity VI. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.
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.
- Ridgecrest, California 2019 M 7.1 11× the energy of this one
- Loma Prieta, California 1989 M 6.9 5.6× the energy of this one
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2.8× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 6.4 about 60 kilotons of TNT
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 this one released 7.9× more
- 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.2 on 2018-12-05.
Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.
Where
Epicentre 35.7053, -117.5038. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inyo County, CA | 96 km (59 mi) | N | earthquakes near Inyo County |
| Kern County, CA | 118 km (73 mi) | WSW | earthquakes near Kern County |
| Tulare County, CA | 129 km (80 mi) | WNW | earthquakes near Tulare County |
| San Bernardino County, CA | 153 km (95 mi) | SE | 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.
- 2.2 14km W of Searles Valley, CA
- 2.6 15km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.5 9km E of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.5 10km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.2 12km E of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.2 12km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.1 11km SW of Searles Valley, CA
- 2.9 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
- 2.4 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
- 3.5 15km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.8 13km SW of Searles Valley, CA
- 2.7 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
- 2.4 7km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
- 2.4 12km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
- 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.
On USGS
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.