QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

15km S of Searles Valley, CA

· 5.3 km deep · released about 3 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 103 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
5.3 km below the surface
Felt
18 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Inyo County, 103 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1812 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 18 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 57,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 6.2× 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 35.6327, -117.4357. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 103 km (64 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 121 km (75 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Bernardino County, CA 143 km (89 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 19 km E of Little Lake, CA
  2. 2.5 19km E of Little Lake, CA
  3. 2.1 12 km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  4. 1.6 16km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  5. 1.9 16 km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  6. 2.0 14 km WSW of Searles Valley, CA
  7. 2.5 10km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  8. 1.8 23 km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  9. 2.5 22km E of Little Lake, CA
  10. 1.8 21km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  11. 1.7 23 km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  12. 2.9 23km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  13. 2.6 14km NE of Ridgecrest, CA
  14. 1.5 15 km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  15. 1.7 16km E of Little Lake, 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 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — it released about 230,000 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.