QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

12km E of Desert Hot Springs, CA

· 10 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 44 kmSan Bernardino County 100 kmSan Diego County 112 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Riverside County, 44 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2132 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 10 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 92× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 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 33.9730, -116.3715. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 44 km (27 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Bernardino County, CA 100 km (62 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County
San Diego County, CA 112 km (70 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 140 km (87 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 16km ENE of Indio, CA
  2. 1.6 18km SSE of Big Bear Lake, CA
  3. 2.0 18km SSE of Big Bear Lake, CA
  4. 1.7 7km SSW of Cabazon, CA
  5. 1.6 24km ENE of Thermal, CA
  6. 1.6 4km NNE of Banning, CA
  7. 1.8 23km ENE of Thermal, CA
  8. 2.2 4km SSW of Idyllwild, CA
  9. 1.6 13km SW of La Quinta, CA
  10. 1.6 24km ENE of Thermal, CA
  11. 2.4 11km SW of Morongo Valley, CA
  12. 1.6 8km S of Big Bear City, CA
  13. 2.5 24km ENE of Thermal, CA
  14. 1.8 23km ENE of Thermal, CA
  15. 2.8 23km ENE of Thermal, 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 4.5 on 2018-05-08 — it released about 16,000 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.