QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

15km SW of Searles Valley, CA

· 9.2 km deep · released about 4.3 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 100 kmKern County 116 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
9.2 km below the surface
Felt
35 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Inyo County, 100 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1864 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 35 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 4.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 39,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,700× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 4.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 9.1× 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 35.6643, -117.5035. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 100 km (62 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 116 km (72 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 131 km (81 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
San Bernardino County, CA 150 km (93 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

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

  1. 2.0 17km NNW of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 1.8 17km E of Little Lake, CA
  3. 2.2 18km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  4. 2.4 18km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  5. 1.7 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  6. 1.9 21km W of Johannesburg, CA
  7. 1.6 22km ESE of Ridgecrest, CA
  8. 1.9 9km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  9. 1.6 24km S of Trona, CA
  10. 2.7 14km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  11. 1.9 20km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  12. 1.6 20km E of Coso Junction, CA
  13. 1.6 16km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  14. 1.9 13km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  15. 1.6 14km SSW 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 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — it released about 150,000 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.