QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

5km SW of Salton City, CA

· 7.0 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 51 kmImperial County 65 kmSan Diego County 78 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
23 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Riverside County, 51 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2164 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 23 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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.

Where

Epicentre 33.2693, -115.9937. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 51 km (32 mi) S of here earthquakes near Riverside County
Imperial County, CA 65 km (40 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA 78 km (48 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 2.2 23km NW of Ocotillo, CA
  3. 1.9 27km SSW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  4. 1.9 24km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  5. 2.1 11km NE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 1.6 10km NNE of Borrego Springs, CA
  7. 1.5 10km SW of Niland, CA
  8. 1.6 10km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  9. 1.6 23km NW of Ocotillo, CA
  10. 1.6 11km NW of Calipatria, CA
  11. 2.0 10km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  12. 1.8 10km SW of Niland, CA
  13. 1.7 18km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  14. 1.6 12km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  15. 1.8 16km SE of Ocotillo Wells, 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 5.2 on 2016-06-10 — it released about 970 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.