Earthquake near Searles Valley, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 48 km (30 mi) from the epicentre. In Searles Valley, 11 km away, the estimate is intensity III (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: Searles Valley 11 km, intensity III · Ridgecrest 20 km, intensity III. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 150,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 6,900× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,900× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1.1 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.3× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — about 620,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 13 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.3 The 1946 Walker Pass, California Earthquake · 44 km W of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
2. 5.8 16km NNE of Ridgecrest, California · 18 km WNW of this epicentre Sep 20, 1995
3. 5.4 14km NW of Inyokern, CA · 43 km W of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
4. 5.4 4km N of Inyokern, CA · 32 km W of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
5. 5.4 17km N of Ridgecrest, California · 21 km WNW of this epicentre Aug 17, 1995

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 35.6788, -117.4625. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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. 1.8 20km NNE of Ridgecrest, CA 16:47 UTC
2. 1.9 23km N of Ridgecrest, CA 15:07 UTC
3. 1.5 14km W of Searles Valley, CA 11:50 UTC
4. 3.0 20km NNE of Ridgecrest, CA 10:01 UTC
5. 2.6 10km SW of Searles Valley, CA 07:49 UTC
6. 2.1 13km SW of Searles Valley, CA 21:24 UTC
7. 2.6 21km N of Ridgecrest, CA 14:46 UTC
8. 2.5 38km E of Johannesburg, CA 13:59 UTC
9. 1.6 14km SSW of Searles Valley, CA 09:39 UTC
10. 1.5 8km E of Ridgecrest, CA 08:14 UTC
11. 1.6 21km N of Ridgecrest, CA 03:56 UTC
12. 1.6 19km ESE of Little Lake, CA 01:29 UTC
13. 3.3 19km ESE of Little Lake, CA 00:32 UTC
14. 2.0 14km W of Searles Valley, CA 00:00 UTC
15. 2.2 22km ESE of Little Lake, CA 22:56 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:18 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.