QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.3mw

2km E of Carson, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 40 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 41 kmOrange County 48 kmVentura County 99 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 4.3 (mw)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
10301 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 41 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 474 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 10301 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 40 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 4,300× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 190× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.3 about 40 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 83× more

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 33.8313, -118.2637. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 41 km (25 mi) S of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Orange County, CA 48 km (30 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Ventura County, CA 99 km (62 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 22km SW of Huntington Beach, CA
  2. 2.3 3km ESE of Carson, CA
  3. 1.5 2km ESE of Carson, CA
  4. 2.2 11km S of Malibu Beach, CA
  5. 1.9 3km ESE of Carson, CA
  6. 2.5 3km SE of Carson, CA
  7. 1.5 2km SE of Carson, CA
  8. 1.8 4km ESE of Carson, CA
  9. 1.5 0km SE of Carson, CA
  10. 2.8 3km SSE of Carson, CA
  11. 1.8 2km WNW of Marina del Rey, CA
  12. 1.6 2km SE of Carson, CA
  13. 1.8 19km S of San Pedro, CA
  14. 1.7 2km ESE of Carson, CA
  15. 2.5 19km S of San Pedro, 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 2.5 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.