QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.9ml

6km SSE of Santa Ynez, CA

· 13 km deep · released about 11 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 4 kmVentura County 88 kmSan Luis Obispo County 98 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 3.9 (ml)
Depth
13 km below the surface
Felt
524 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 4 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2140 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 524 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 22× 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 34.5640, -120.0620. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 4 km (2 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 88 km (55 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 98 km (61 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo 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. 2.4 18km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA
  2. 1.9 5km SE of Goleta, CA
  3. 2.5 13km W of Isla Vista, CA
  4. 2.0 18km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  5. 2.0 7km ESE of Lompoc, CA
  6. 1.8 4km NW of Goleta, CA
  7. 2.1 14km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  8. 2.4 1km NW of Goleta, CA
  9. 1.9 1km WSW of Goleta, CA
  10. 1.8 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  11. 1.7 14km WSW of Isla Vista, CA
  12. 2.0 17km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  13. 1.8 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  14. 2.9 22km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  15. 2.6 17km SSW of Santa Barbara, 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — it released about 1.7 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.