QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

14km WSW of Isla Vista, CA

· 4.1 km deep · released about 9.6 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Barbara County 17 kmVentura County 81 kmSan Luis Obispo County 119 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
4.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Barbara County, 17 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1770 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 9.6 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 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 99× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 9.6 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 34.3847, -120.0110. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Barbara County, CA 17 km (11 mi) S of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 81 km (50 mi) W of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 119 km (74 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kern County, CA 158 km (98 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 13 km W of Isla Vista, CA
  2. 2.4 20 km S of Carpinteria, CA
  3. 1.5 17km SSE of Lompoc, CA
  4. 2.1 19km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  5. 1.5 22km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  6. 1.6 19km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  7. 3.1 21km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  8. 1.8 20km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  9. 1.6 9km W of Isla Vista, CA
  10. 1.8 8km NNW of Los Olivos, CA
  11. 1.6 8km N of Carpinteria, CA
  12. 1.9 7km NNE of Carpinteria, CA
  13. 2.2 12km ESE of San Miguel Is., CA
  14. 1.5 21km SSW of Carpinteria, CA
  15. 2.7 14km E of San Miguel Is., 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — it released about 3,800 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.