QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

22km NNW of Tehachapi, CA

· 5.4 km deep · released about 9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 19 kmTulare County 104 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
5.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 19 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1710 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 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 9 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 35.3193, -118.5238. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 19 km (12 mi) E of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 104 km (64 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Ventura County, CA 120 km (75 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Kings County, CA 144 km (89 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Kings County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 15km SSE of Bodfish, CA
  2. 2.7 7km SSW of Bodfish, CA
  3. 1.5 30km SE of Bodfish, CA
  4. 1.8 8km NNE of Mojave, CA
  5. 1.6 22km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  6. 1.6 22km ESE of Bodfish, CA
  7. 1.8 13km SE of Bodfish, CA
  8. 1.5 25km N of Tehachapi, CA
  9. 1.8 7km SSW of Mojave, CA
  10. 1.5 7km S of Mojave, CA
  11. 1.6 6km SSW of Mojave, CA
  12. 1.7 8km S of Mojave, CA
  13. 1.5 14km W of Mojave, CA
  14. 1.9 16km NNW of California City, CA
  15. 2.5 24km S of Bodfish, 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 4.0 on 2021-08-27 — it released about 3,300 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.