QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9ml

5km NNE of Taft, CA

· 19 km deep · released about 23 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 66 kmSanta Barbara County 91 kmSan Luis Obispo County 95 kmVentura County 96 kmKings County 105 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
19 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 66 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2018 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 23 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 5.8 660,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 470,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 42× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 23 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 35.1827, -119.4288. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 66 km (41 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Kern County
Santa Barbara County, CA 91 km (56 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 95 km (59 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Ventura County, CA 96 km (59 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Kings County, CA 105 km (65 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Tulare County, CA 130 km (81 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  2. 1.6 19km ENE of Maricopa, CA
  3. 2.4 13km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  4. 2.6 12km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  5. 2.8 12km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  6. 3.5 13km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  7. 1.8 19km E of Maricopa, CA
  8. 2.0 19km E of Maricopa, CA
  9. 1.8 13km N of Pine Mountain Club, CA
  10. 1.8 8km ESE of Shafter, CA
  11. 3.0 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  12. 3.9 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  13. 1.6 17km NW of Grapevine, CA
  14. 1.5 11km NW of Pine Mountain Club, CA
  15. 1.9 19km NW of Grapevine, 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 27,000 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.