QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

0km NNW of Paramount, CA

· 20 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 35 kmOrange County 43 kmVentura County 103 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
20 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 35 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2644 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 5.6 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 2,700,000× 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 5.6 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 33.8935, -118.1630. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 35 km (22 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Orange County, CA 43 km (27 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Ventura County, CA 103 km (64 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 4km WNW of El Segundo, CA
  2. 1.7 4km N of Yorba Linda, CA
  3. 1.9 4km SW of San Pedro, CA
  4. 2.4 4km N of Yorba Linda, CA
  5. 2.0 3km E of Hawthorne, CA
  6. 1.6 2km SSW of San Fernando, CA
  7. 2.3 2km SW of San Fernando, CA
  8. 1.7 22km SSW of Seal Beach, CA
  9. 1.7 11km W of Palos Verdes Estates, CA
  10. 3.5 23km SSW of Seal Beach, CA
  11. 1.6 10km NE of North Tustin, CA
  12. 2.4 12km S of Las Flores, CA
  13. 1.7 4km WNW of Huntington Beach, CA
  14. 1.9 21km S of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
  15. 1.5 5km SSW of Baldwin Hills, 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 4.4 on 2018-08-29 — it released about 20,000 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.