QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

8km WSW of Shafter, CA

· 28 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 59 kmKings County 78 kmTulare County 98 kmSan Luis Obispo 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
28 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 59 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1944 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 5.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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 35.4768, -119.3567. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 59 km (36 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kern County
Kings County, CA 78 km (49 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Tulare County, CA 98 km (61 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 99 km (62 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Santa Barbara County, CA 122 km (76 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  2. 1.8 15km SSW of Lamont, CA
  3. 1.9 15km SE of Buttonwillow, CA
  4. 1.6 11km NE of Maricopa, CA
  5. 2.7 24km E of Maricopa, CA
  6. 3.1 11km SW of Lamont, CA
  7. 2.3 14km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  8. 1.7 14km SW of Lamont, CA
  9. 2.5 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  10. 1.6 19km ENE of Maricopa, CA
  11. 1.9 33km NNE of Simmler, CA
  12. 1.8 19km E of Maricopa, CA
  13. 2.0 19km E of Maricopa, CA
  14. 1.8 8km ESE of Shafter, CA
  15. 3.0 15km SSE of Buttonwillow, 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 4.9 on 2016-02-24 — it released about 110,000 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.