QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9ml

6km WSW of Isla Vista, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 21 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 20 kmVentura County 72 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 1.9 (ml)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 20 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2360 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 21 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 730,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 520,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 46× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 21 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 34.3845, -119.9190. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 20 km (13 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 72 km (45 mi) W of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 122 km (76 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kern County, CA 152 km (95 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 6km WSW of Isla Vista, CA
  2. 2.4 22km S of Solvang, CA
  3. 2.5 32km N of San Miguel Is., CA
  4. 2.0 34km SSW of Buellton, CA
  5. 2.3 13km SE of Carpinteria, CA
  6. 2.0 15km SSE of Carpinteria, CA
  7. 1.7 13km SE of Carpinteria, CA
  8. 1.8 12km SE of Carpinteria, CA
  9. 1.8 9km S of Montecito, CA
  10. 3.3 10km SSE of Santa Barbara, CA
  11. 1.8 24km NNE of Montecito, CA
  12. 1.7 24km NNE of Montecito, CA
  13. 1.7 14km NNW of Isla Vista, CA
  14. 2.0 6km NNW of Los Olivos, CA
  15. 1.9 7km NNW of Los Olivos, 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — it released about 1,800 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.