QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

12km SW of Searles Valley, CA

· 9.7 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 96 kmKern County 117 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
9.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Inyo County, 96 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2552 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 970,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 86× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 35.7065, -117.5138. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 96 km (59 mi) S of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Kern County, CA 117 km (73 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 128 km (80 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Tulare County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 15km NE of Ridgecrest, CA
  2. 1.5 12km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  3. 1.9 24km N of Searles Valley, CA
  4. 1.6 23km N of Ridgecrest, CA
  5. 2.1 18km S of Trona, CA
  6. 1.6 10 km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  7. 2.1 14 km NNE of Ridgecrest, CA
  8. 1.6 18 km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  9. 2.6 19km W of Searles Valley, CA
  10. 2.8 12km SW of Searles Valley, CA
  11. 1.7 15 km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  12. 1.8 14 km SSW of Searles Valley, CA
  13. 1.9 12 km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  14. 2.1 14km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA
  15. 1.6 22 km S of Trona, 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 120,000,000 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.