QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

6km S of Brawley, CA

· 7.6 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 21 kmRiverside County 100 kmSan Diego County 117 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
7.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Imperial County, 21 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2697 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.7 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 lb of TNT

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 32.9260, -115.5288. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 21 km (13 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 100 km (62 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 117 km (73 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 3km NE of Westmorland, CA
  2. 2.6 3km SW of Brawley, CA
  3. 2.3 12km SSE of Bombay Beach, CA
  4. 2.2 3km ENE of Heber, CA
  5. 2.2 4km ENE of Heber, CA
  6. 2.2 7km SW of Holtville, CA
  7. 2.3 7km SW of Holtville, CA
  8. 2.0 7km WSW of Holtville, CA
  9. 1.7 2km ESE of Bombay Beach, CA
  10. 1.6 12km WSW of Imperial, CA
  11. 2.2 4km W of Brawley, CA
  12. 1.6 14km SW of Westmorland, CA
  13. 1.7 7km W of Holtville, CA
  14. 1.8 7km WSW of Holtville, CA
  15. 1.7 7km W of Holtville, 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 4.3 on 2016-09-27 — it released about 16,000 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.