QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.5mw

15km ESE of Little Lake, CA

· 5.0 km deep · released about 2.7 kilotons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 80 kmTulare County 100 kmKern County 108 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 5.5 (mw)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
32 reports · strongest reported intensity VII
Measured shaking
intensity VII (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Inyo County, 80 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

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

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 32 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2.8× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.5 about 2.7 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5,600× 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 35.9012, -117.7495. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 80 km (50 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Tulare County, CA 100 km (62 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 108 km (67 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 17km WNW of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 3.1 17km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  3. 3.1 18km E of Little Lake, CA
  4. 3.5 18km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  5. 3.3 14km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  6. 3.0 21km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  7. 2.9 21km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  8. 3.2 24km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  9. 3.0 17km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  10. 3.2 18km E of Little Lake, CA
  11. 3.0 16km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  12. 3.5 19km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  13. 3.5 17km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  14. 3.0 21km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  15. 3.4 20km E of Little Lake, 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 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — it released about 250 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.