QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

19km W of Johannesburg, CA

· 2.9 km deep · released about 1.1 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 81 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
2.9 km below the surface
Felt
8 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Kern County, 81 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1830 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 1.1 tons 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 6.7 150,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 6,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.3× 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 35.3718, -117.8415. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 81 km (50 mi) E of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 128 km (79 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Ventura County, CA 163 km (101 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 19km W of Johannesburg, CA
  2. 1.6 14km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  3. 1.7 19km W of Johannesburg, CA
  4. 2.2 11km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  5. 1.6 20km SSW of Trona, CA
  6. 2.0 16km W of Searles Valley, CA
  7. 1.7 24km NNE of California City, CA
  8. 2.0 12km NE of Ridgecrest, CA
  9. 2.7 14km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  10. 1.6 12km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  11. 2.0 24km NNE of California City, CA
  12. 1.5 14km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  13. 1.8 14km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  14. 1.8 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  15. 2.0 8km E of Ridgecrest, 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 620,000 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.