QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

3km WNW of Sylmar, CA

· 7.2 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 24 kmVentura County 60 kmOrange County 97 kmKern County 117 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
7.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 24 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1692 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 34.3190, -118.4802. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 24 km (15 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Ventura County, CA 60 km (37 mi) E of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Orange County, CA 97 km (60 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Kern County, CA 117 km (72 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 8km SE of Neenach, CA
  2. 1.6 1km ESE of Baldwin Hills, CA
  3. 2.3 0km SSE of San Fernando, CA
  4. 1.6 3km WNW of Sylmar, CA
  5. 1.6 1km SE of Sylmar, CA
  6. 1.8 4km WSW of East Los Angeles, CA
  7. 1.6 2km SSE of Chatsworth, CA
  8. 2.5 8km NNW of Malibu, CA
  9. 1.6 2km SSW of Sherman Oaks, CA
  10. 1.6 3km N of Sylmar, CA
  11. 2.0 3km WSW of East Los Angeles, CA
  12. 3.6 3km WSW of East Los Angeles, CA
  13. 1.8 12km WSW of Lake Hughes, CA
  14. 1.8 12km WSW of Lake Hughes, CA
  15. 1.7 2km SE of Simi Valley, 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 2020-09-19 — it released about 19,000 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.