QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.4mw

20km E of Little Lake, CA

· 7.4 km deep · released about 2.2 kilotons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 77 kmTulare County 105 kmKern County 113 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 5.4 (mw)
Depth
7.4 km below the surface
Felt
33 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity VII (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Inyo County, 77 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. 33 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.2 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 78× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3.5× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2.5× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.4 about 2.2 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4,600× 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 35.9102, -117.6848. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 77 km (48 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Tulare County, CA 105 km (65 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 113 km (70 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

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

  1. 3.2 12km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 2.7 18km E of Little Lake, CA
  3. 3.2 19km S of Trona, CA
  4. 2.6 15km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  5. 2.8 17km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  6. 3.2 14km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  7. 3.1 18km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  8. 3.5 16km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  9. 3.2 20km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  10. 3.6 23km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  11. 3.0 19km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  12. 3.0 18km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  13. 3.3 17km E of Little Lake, CA
  14. 2.9 17km E of Little Lake, CA
  15. 2.8 19km ESE 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 310 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.