QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

32km ESE of Lake Isabella, CA

· 2.9 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 57 kmTulare County 97 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
2.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 57 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2036 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 35.5318, -118.1395. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 57 km (36 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 97 km (60 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Inyo County, CA 132 km (82 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Inyo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 12km WNW of Wofford Heights, CA
  2. 2.0 19km NE of Kernville, CA
  3. 1.7 24km NW of Tehachapi, CA
  4. 1.8 24km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  5. 1.6 8km ESE of Ridgecrest, CA
  6. 1.8 23km ENE of Arvin, CA
  7. 1.7 11km SSE of Bodfish, CA
  8. 1.8 11km SSE of Bodfish, CA
  9. 2.2 21km SSE of Bodfish, CA
  10. 1.5 21km SSE of Bodfish, CA
  11. 1.9 12km SE of Bodfish, CA
  12. 1.6 7km E of Ridgecrest, CA
  13. 1.6 14km SE of Lake Isabella, CA
  14. 2.9 21km SSW of Little Lake, CA
  15. 1.9 23km NNW of Tehachapi, 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 4.8 on 2019-07-06 — it released about 32,000 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.