QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

5km SSE of Santa Ynez, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 37 lb 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 97 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
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 4 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2209 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 37 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 5.8 410,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 290,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 26× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 37 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 34.5745, -120.0512. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 4 km (3 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 88 km (54 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 97 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

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

  1. 1.9 13km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  2. 1.8 18km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA
  3. 2.4 18km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA
  4. 1.9 5km SE of Goleta, CA
  5. 2.5 13km W of Isla Vista, CA
  6. 2.0 18km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  7. 2.0 7km ESE of Lompoc, CA
  8. 1.8 4km NW of Goleta, CA
  9. 2.1 14km SSW of Lompoc, CA
  10. 2.4 1km NW of Goleta, CA
  11. 1.9 1km WSW of Goleta, CA
  12. 1.8 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  13. 1.8 25km NNE of Montecito, CA
  14. 1.7 14km WSW of Isla Vista, CA
  15. 2.0 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 1,000 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.