QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8ml

2km ESE of Carson, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 460 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 41 kmOrange County 48 kmVentura County 100 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 2.8 (ml)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
411 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 41 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1720 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 411 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 460 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 33,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 23,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2.1× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 460 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 33.8262, -118.2640. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 41 km (26 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 100 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

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

  1. 1.6 1km ENE of Carson, CA
  2. 2.0 22km SW of Huntington Beach, CA
  3. 2.3 3km ESE of Carson, CA
  4. 1.5 2km ESE of Carson, CA
  5. 2.2 11km S of Malibu Beach, CA
  6. 1.9 3km ESE of Carson, CA
  7. 2.5 3km SE of Carson, CA
  8. 1.5 2km SE of Carson, CA
  9. 1.8 4km ESE of Carson, CA
  10. 1.5 0km SE of Carson, CA
  11. 2.8 3km SSE of Carson, CA
  12. 1.8 2km WNW of Marina del Rey, CA
  13. 1.6 2km SE of Carson, CA
  14. 1.8 19km S of San Pedro, CA
  15. 1.7 2km ESE of Carson, 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 420 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.