QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8ml

3km SSE of Carson, CA

· 15 km deep · released about 530 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 43 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
15 km below the surface
Felt
455 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 43 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1653 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 455 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 530 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 29,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 20,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.8× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 530 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 33.8083, -118.2685. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 43 km (27 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

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

  1. 1.7 3km SW of Orange, CA
  2. 1.6 7km S of Newport Beach, CA
  3. 1.8 2km W of Lakewood, CA
  4. 1.6 3km SE of South Whittier, CA
  5. 1.9 17km SSE of San Pedro, CA
  6. 2.1 4km S of Huntington Beach, CA
  7. 1.9 4km N of Fountain Valley, CA
  8. 1.7 5km WNW of Huntington Beach, CA
  9. 2.3 17km SSE of San Pedro, CA
  10. 1.6 17km SSE of San Pedro, CA
  11. 1.6 0km SSE of Baldwin Hills, CA
  12. 1.8 1km W of Yorba Linda, CA
  13. 1.5 4km ENE of Hawthorne, CA
  14. 2.0 4km N of Gardena, CA
  15. 1.7 4km ESE of Lennox, 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 370 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.