QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

11km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA

· 5.9 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 56 kmSan Diego County 69 kmImperial County 70 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
5.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Riverside County, 56 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2228 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 11 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 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 930,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 83× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 33.2255, -116.0700. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 56 km (35 mi) S of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 69 km (43 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 70 km (43 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 22km ESE of Anza, CA
  2. 2.1 22km ESE of Anza, CA
  3. 1.8 22km ESE of Anza, CA
  4. 2.1 18km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  5. 1.7 27km SSW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 2.4 19km ESE of Julian, CA
  7. 2.6 22km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  8. 1.6 21km W of Westmorland, CA
  9. 1.5 4km SW of Salton City, CA
  10. 1.6 27km ENE of Pine Valley, CA
  11. 1.5 10km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  12. 2.2 23km NW of Ocotillo, CA
  13. 1.9 27km SSW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  14. 1.9 24km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  15. 2.1 11km NE 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 160,000 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.