QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 1.8ml

23km NW of Ocotillo, CA

· 2.3 km deep · released about 17 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Diego County 58 kmImperial County 80 kmRiverside 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
2.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Diego County, 58 km WNW
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2590 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 17 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 5.8 870,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 55× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 17 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 32.8572, -116.1870. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Diego County, CA 58 km (36 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 80 km (50 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 99 km (61 mi) S of here earthquakes near Riverside 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. 2.3 27km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  2. 1.5 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  3. 1.6 12 km W of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  4. 1.7 18km ESE of Ocotillo, CA
  5. 2.9 27km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  6. 1.7 27km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  7. 1.6 26km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  8. 1.8 28km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  9. 1.9 28km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  10. 1.7 18km N of Ocotillo, CA
  11. 1.8 12km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  12. 1.6 6km SW of Salton City, CA
  13. 2.4 15km E of Ocotillo, CA
  14. 1.8 19km E of Julian, CA
  15. 1.5 9km E of Julian, 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 4.0 on 2016-07-31 — it released about 1,900 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.