QuakeIndex

quarry blast · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

5km NW of Boron, CA

· -0.8 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 101 kmLos Angeles County 107 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
-0.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 101 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2568 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as quarry blast, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 970,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 86× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 35.0352, -117.6832. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 101 km (63 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Los Angeles County, CA 107 km (67 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 5 km NNW of Boron, CA
  2. 1.7 13km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
  3. 1.9 5km NNW of Boron, CA
  4. 1.6 17km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
  5. 2.3 17km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
  6. 1.6 7km S of Mojave, CA
  7. 1.9 5km NNW of Boron, CA
  8. 1.8 17km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
  9. 1.8 5 km NNW of Boron, CA
  10. 1.8 27km ESE of Boron, CA
  11. 2.3 5km NNW of Boron, CA
  12. 1.9 21km NNW of California City, CA
  13. 2.0 4km NNW of Boron, CA
  14. 1.5 24km W of Johannesburg, CA
  15. 1.6 5km NNW of Boron, 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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.