QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

5km WNW of Bombay Beach, CA

· 3.3 km deep · released about 13 lb 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
3.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Riverside County, 46 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2533 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 13 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 810,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 72× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 33.3592, -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

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

  1. 2.1 12km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 2.9 15km NNE of Borrego Springs, CA
  3. 2.0 16km NE of Borrego Springs, CA
  4. 2.6 15km NE of Borrego Springs, CA
  5. 1.5 12km ENE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 2.3 7km SW of Niland, CA
  7. 1.7 10km WSW of Niland, CA
  8. 2.1 10km WSW of Niland, CA
  9. 1.5 16 km ENE of Borrego Springs, CA
  10. 2.3 10km S of Salton City, CA
  11. 1.6 4km S of Salton City, CA
  12. 1.6 7km WSW of Calipatria, CA
  13. 2.1 8km NNE of Westmorland, CA
  14. 2.0 23km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  15. 1.5 11km SW of Salton City, 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 7,200 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.