QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

6km N of Taft, CA

· 15 km deep · released about 51 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 68 kmSanta Barbara County 91 kmSan Luis Obispo County 93 kmVentura County 98 kmKings County 102 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 68 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2258 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 51 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 51 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 35.1995, -119.4552. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 68 km (42 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Kern County
Santa Barbara County, CA 91 km (56 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 93 km (58 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Ventura County, CA 98 km (61 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Kings County, CA 102 km (64 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Tulare County, CA 130 km (81 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tulare 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. 1.6 19km ENE of Maricopa, CA
  2. 1.7 18km WNW of Grapevine, CA
  3. 1.7 18km N of Pine Mountain Club, CA
  4. 2.0 9km S of Lamont, CA
  5. 1.6 15km W of Taft, CA
  6. 1.5 12km NNE of Pine Mountain Club, CA
  7. 1.7 21km S of Rosedale, CA
  8. 2.0 14km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  9. 1.6 21km NW of Grapevine, CA
  10. 2.4 18km NW of Grapevine, CA
  11. 2.7 18km WNW of Grapevine, CA
  12. 1.7 17km WSW of Rosedale, CA
  13. 1.6 23km NE of Maricopa, CA
  14. 1.6 19km WNW of Grapevine, CA
  15. 1.6 18km WNW of Grapevine, 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 4.9 on 2016-02-24 — it released about 12,000 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.