Earthquake near Searles Valley, CA

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 123 km (76 mi) from the epicentre. In Searles Valley, 21 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 21 km, intensity III · Ridgecrest 46 km, intensity III. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 46 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 3,700× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 170× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 120× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.3 about 46 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 95× 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 15,000 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. 6.0 Death Valley area, California · 33 km E of this epicentre Nov 4, 1908
2. 5.9 Death Valley area, California · 33 km E of this epicentre Nov 10, 1916
3. 5.8 16km NNE of Ridgecrest, California · 33 km SW of this epicentre Sep 20, 1995
4. 5.4 17km N of Ridgecrest, California · 34 km SW of this epicentre Aug 17, 1995
5. 5.3 27km E of Coso Junction, California · 29 km WNW of this epicentre Nov 27, 1996

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 35.9555, -117.3630. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.8 21km ESE of Little Lake, CA 18:02 UTC
2. 1.7 19km S of Searles Valley, CA 17:45 UTC
3. 2.3 15km ESE of Ridgecrest, CA 15:43 UTC
4. 2.0 18km E of Little Lake, CA 11:55 UTC
5. 1.9 17km E of Little Lake, CA 06:26 UTC
6. 1.6 14km SW of Searles Valley, CA 00:53 UTC
7. 1.7 22km N of Searles Valley, CA 21:37 UTC
8. 2.0 9km NE of Coso Junction, CA 18:14 UTC
9. 1.6 10km NE of Coso Junction, CA 14:14 UTC
10. 2.1 7km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA 11:17 UTC
11. 1.9 14km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA 10:06 UTC
12. 1.9 21km N of Ridgecrest, CA 02:02 UTC
13. 1.6 14km WSW of Searles Valley, CA 12:57 UTC
14. 1.8 12km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA 01:25 UTC
15. 1.6 14km NE of Ridgecrest, CA 22:09 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:07 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.