QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.2mw

16km S of Searles Valley, CA

· 5.5 km deep · released about 25 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 104 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 4.2 (mw)
Depth
5.5 km below the surface
Felt
82 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Inyo County, 104 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1818 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 82 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 25 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 300× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 210× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.2 about 25 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 53× 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 35.6250, -117.4267. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 104 km (65 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 122 km (76 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Bernardino County, CA 142 km (88 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Bernardino 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. 1.8 13km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 1.9 15km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  3. 1.8 23km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  4. 1.7 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  5. 1.6 15km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  6. 1.8 14km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  7. 1.8 17km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  8. 2.1 15km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  9. 1.6 11km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  10. 2.1 11km W of Searles Valley, CA
  11. 1.8 16km S of Searles Valley, CA
  12. 2.6 20km NNE of Ridgecrest, CA
  13. 2.3 11km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  14. 1.9 16km W of Searles Valley, CA
  15. 2.1 15km SW of Searles Valley, 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 27,000 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.