Earthquake near Santa Barbara, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 51 km (32 mi) from the epicentre. In Santa Barbara, 10 km away, the estimate is intensity III (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: Santa Barbara 10 km, intensity III · Carpinteria 13 km, intensity III · Goleta 19 km, intensity III · Isla Vista 21 km, intensity II · Ventura 33 km, intensity II · Ojai 39 km, intensity II · Oxnard 46 km, intensity II · Santa Ynez 50 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.4 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 120,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,400× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3,800× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.4 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.9× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — about 13 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 9 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 The 1925 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 15 km WSW of this epicentre Jun 29, 1925
2. 5.5 30 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 40 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 18, 1926
3. 5.5 10 km NE of Toro Canyon, California · 22 km NE of this epicentre Jun 29, 1926
4. 5.5 The 1941 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 8 km E of this epicentre Jul 1, 1941
5. 5.2 9 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 42 km SE of this epicentre Apr 18, 1928

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 34.3427, -119.6487. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 10km NW of Santa Paula, CA 00:34 UTC
2. 3.9 10km NW of Santa Paula, CA 00:25 UTC
3. 2.3 10km NW of Santa Paula, CA 23:52 UTC
4. 2.0 10km NW of Santa Paula, CA 23:32 UTC
5. 2.4 1km NW of Goleta, CA 18:06 UTC
6. 1.6 6km W of Ojai, CA 07:04 UTC
7. 1.9 1km WSW of Goleta, CA 22:33 UTC
8. 1.8 18km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 15:06 UTC
9. 1.5 20km NNE of Carpinteria, CA 07:42 UTC
10. 1.9 4km WSW of Ojai, CA 22:58 UTC
11. 3.2 5km WSW of Ojai, CA 00:02 UTC
12. 1.8 25km NNE of Montecito, CA 15:35 UTC
13. 1.8 20km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 03:09 UTC
14. 2.2 21km SSW of Carpinteria, CA 13:44 UTC
15. 1.9 21km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA 12:27 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:27 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.