QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.6ml

27km WNW of Buttonwillow, CA

· 9.3 km deep · released about 240 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 62 kmSan Luis Obispo County 66 kmKern County 93 kmSanta Barbara County 113 kmTulare 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 2.6 (ml)
Depth
9.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 62 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2234 days ago

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 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 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 35.5187, -119.7330. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 62 km (39 mi) S of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 66 km (41 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kern County, CA 93 km (58 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kern County
Santa Barbara County, CA 113 km (70 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Tulare County, CA 117 km (72 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Tulare County

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. 1.8 8km ESE of Shafter, CA
  2. 3.0 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  3. 3.9 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  4. 1.6 22km WNW of Buttonwillow, CA
  5. 1.6 16km SW of Buttonwillow, CA
  6. 1.7 13km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  7. 1.9 12km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  8. 1.7 20km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  9. 2.4 13km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  10. 1.6 15km W of Taft, CA
  11. 1.7 17km WSW of Rosedale, CA
  12. 1.6 9km SSE of Alpaugh, CA
  13. 1.8 15km NE of Taft, CA
  14. 1.6 20km S of Kettleman City, CA
  15. 1.5 8km WSW of Shafter, 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 4.9 on 2016-02-24 — it released about 2,500 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.