QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

23km ESE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA

· 5.8 km deep · released about 40 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Orange County 111 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
5.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Orange County, 111 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2488 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 40 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 380,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 270,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 24× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 40 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 32.7233, -118.1257. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Orange County, CA 111 km (69 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Orange County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 44km WSW of Carlsbad, CA
  2. 2.6 43km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  3. 2.3 42km WSW of Encinitas, CA
  4. 2.9 38km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  5. 2.5 44km SE of Avalon, CA
  6. 2.6 12km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  7. 2.0 49km ENE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  8. 2.4 7km SSW of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  9. 2.0 4km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  10. 2.0 4km SSW of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  11. 1.9 47km SSW of San Clemente, CA
  12. 3.6 37km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  13. 3.2 18km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  14. 1.8 31km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  15. 1.6 49km ENE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), 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 2019-06-05 — it released about 2,100 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.