QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

18km N of Avalon, CA

· 2.8 km deep · released about 38 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Orange County 55 kmLos Angeles County 78 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
2.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Orange County, 55 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1579 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 38 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 390,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 25× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 38 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 33.5000, -118.3327. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Orange County, CA 55 km (34 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Los Angeles County, CA 78 km (48 mi) S of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Ventura County, CA 121 km (75 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

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

  1. 2.8 24km ESE of Santa Barbara Is., CA
  2. 2.1 18km S of San Pedro, CA
  3. 1.8 22km SSW of Newport Beach, CA
  4. 1.7 12km SSW of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
  5. 1.8 22km SSE of San Pedro, CA
  6. 2.0 22km SSW of Seal Beach, CA
  7. 1.7 9km S of San Pedro, CA
  8. 2.2 28km E of Avalon, CA
  9. 2.1 1km SSW of Hermosa Beach, CA
  10. 1.9 3km N of Carson, CA
  11. 2.4 26km SW of Laguna Beach, CA
  12. 2.7 0km E of Carson, CA
  13. 2.5 2km ENE of Carson, CA
  14. 1.6 3km S of Westminster, CA
  15. 1.5 4km S of Westminster, 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 4.3 on 2021-09-18 — it released about 2,100 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.