QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

8km E of Ridgecrest, CA

· 7.5 km deep · released about 1,600 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 106 kmKern County 107 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
7.5 km below the surface
Felt
8 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Inyo County, 106 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2558 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 8 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,600 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,600 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 35.6170, -117.5898. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 106 km (66 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 107 km (67 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 127 km (79 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Tulare 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. 1.7 13km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 1.7 9km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  3. 1.6 9km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  4. 1.8 8km ESE of Ridgecrest, CA
  5. 2.3 12km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  6. 1.8 7km ESE of Ridgecrest, CA
  7. 2.1 8km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  8. 1.8 15km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  9. 2.3 13km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  10. 2.0 8km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  11. 1.9 15km W of Searles Valley, CA
  12. 4.4 15km W of Searles Valley, CA
  13. 2.3 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  14. 2.3 11km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  15. 1.7 13km WSW 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 6.4 on 2019-07-04 — it released about 75,000 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.