45km S of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA

A magnitude 3.0 earthquake was recorded 45km S of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA at 22:24 UTC on 2020-05-15. 7 people have reported feeling it to USGS. This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 950 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 350,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 16,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 11,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.0 about 950 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.3 on 2019-06-05 — about 83 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists one earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.2 42km SSW of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA · 31 km WNW of this epicentre Feb 24, 1948

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 32.4228, -118.2715. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.5 12 km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 10:21 UTC
2. 2.1 69 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 15:48 UTC
3. 2.9 10 km WNW of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 02:00 UTC
4. 2.0 63 km WSW of Coronado, CA 09:35 UTC
5. 3.2 72 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 10:20 UTC
6. 2.6 68 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 09:22 UTC
7. 2.6 25 km ESE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 10:19 UTC
8. 1.8 37 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 16:02 UTC
9. 2.3 55 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 17:05 UTC
10. 2.6 6 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 06:19 UTC
11. 3.0 25 km SE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 21:45 UTC
12. 2.3 6 km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 03:12 UTC
13. 3.0 8 km SSE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 16:17 UTC
14. 2.5 31 km ESE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 03:01 UTC
15. 4.4 40 km S of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 10:44 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 03:23 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.