QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

12km ENE of Borrego Springs, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 1,600 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 52 kmSan Diego County 58 kmImperial County 89 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
15 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Riverside County, 52 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2550 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 15 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,600 lb 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 6.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,600 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 33.3098, -116.2568. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 52 km (33 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 58 km (36 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 89 km (55 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 8km ENE of Julian, CA
  2. 1.5 23km NW of Ocotillo, CA
  3. 1.7 4km ESE of Lake Henshaw, CA
  4. 1.6 6km SW of Salton City, CA
  5. 2.1 4km ENE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 1.9 11km NE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  7. 1.9 8km ENE of Julian, CA
  8. 1.7 20km ESE of Anza, CA
  9. 1.8 12km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  10. 1.9 13km ESE of Anza, CA
  11. 1.5 12km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  12. 2.0 22km ESE of Anza, CA
  13. 1.5 9km ENE of Julian, CA
  14. 1.9 10km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  15. 1.7 28km SSW of Ocotillo Wells, 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 5.2 on 2016-06-10 — it released about 1,100 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.