Earthquake near El Centro, CA

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 9 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In El Centro, 27 km away, the estimate is intensity I (not felt). 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Seeley, Imperial, Heber.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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 4.0 on 2016-07-31 — about 6,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 37 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 The 1940 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 45 km ENE of this epicentre May 19, 1940
2. 6.6 The 1942 Fish Creek Mountains, California Earthquake · 26 km NNE of this epicentre Oct 21, 1942
3. 6.6 The 1987 Superstition Hills, California Earthquake · 30 km N of this epicentre Nov 24, 1987
4. 6.4 The 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake, California-Baja California · 46 km E of this epicentre Oct 15, 1979
5. 6.3 The 1906 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 36 km ENE of this epicentre Apr 19, 1906

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 32.7480, -115.8452. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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 17km NNW of Westmorland, CA 13:06 UTC
2. 2.9 11km WNW of Calipatria, CA 13:03 UTC
3. 2.0 11km WNW of Calipatria, CA 12:32 UTC
4. 1.8 16km NNW of Westmorland, CA 12:19 UTC
5. 2.3 11km WNW of Calipatria, CA 12:03 UTC
6. 1.7 11km WNW of Calipatria, CA 12:00 UTC
7. 2.1 11km WNW of Calipatria, CA 11:59 UTC
8. 1.7 18km ESE of Ocotillo, CA 05:26 UTC
9. 1.9 14km W of Progreso, B.C., MX 19:17 UTC
10. 2.8 17km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX 10:05 UTC
11. 1.6 16km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX 00:11 UTC
12. 2.2 14km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX 19:05 UTC
13. 1.9 15km W of Progreso, B.C., MX 05:02 UTC
14. 2.0 27km ENE of Pine Valley, CA 03:02 UTC
15. 1.9 7km SW of Holtville, CA 11:50 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 14:26 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.