QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9ml

5km NW of Huntington Beach, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 22 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Orange County 25 kmLos Angeles County 57 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 1.9 (ml)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Orange County, 25 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1649 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 22 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 680,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 480,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 43× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 22 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 33.7200, -118.0383. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Orange County, CA 25 km (15 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Los Angeles County, CA 57 km (35 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Ventura County, CA 123 km (77 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Diego County, CA 140 km (87 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Diego County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 7km ESE of San Pedro, CA
  2. 2.6 1km ESE of Carson, CA
  3. 1.6 2km E of Carson, CA
  4. 2.5 0km ESE of Carson, CA
  5. 2.0 2km SE of Carson, CA
  6. 2.8 2km ESE of Carson, CA
  7. 4.3 2km E of Carson, CA
  8. 1.6 4km NE of Whittier, CA
  9. 2.0 30km SW of Dana Point, CA
  10. 1.7 2km NNW of Inglewood, CA
  11. 1.7 30km SW of Dana Point, CA
  12. 1.8 4km NW of Silver Lake, CA
  13. 1.8 3km SSE of Garden Grove, CA
  14. 1.9 16km NNE of Avalon, CA
  15. 1.8 1km NNW of La Puente, 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 8,800 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.