QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

5km WNW of Bombay Beach, CA

· 3.2 km deep · released about 4.2 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 46 kmImperial County 54 kmSan Diego County 99 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 3.6 (mw)
Depth
3.2 km below the surface
Felt
26 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Riverside County, 46 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 713 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 26 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 4.2 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 40,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,300× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 4.2 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 8.8× 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 33.3597, -115.7880. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 46 km (28 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
Imperial County, CA 54 km (33 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA 99 km (62 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 10km W of Calipatria, CA
  2. 2.3 11km SW of Niland, CA
  3. 3.2 6km SW of Salton City, CA
  4. 2.1 13km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  5. 2.3 27km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  6. 2.6 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  7. 1.6 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  8. 1.8 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  9. 1.5 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  10. 1.7 12km ESE of North Shore, CA
  11. 2.9 27km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  12. 1.7 27km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  13. 1.6 26km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  14. 1.8 28km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  15. 1.9 28km WSW of Westmorland, 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 4.3 on 2016-09-27 — it released about 11 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.