QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

22km NNW of Tehachapi, CA

· 3.1 km deep · released about 7.3 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 19 kmTulare County 103 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
3.1 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 1811 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 7.3 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 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.3 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 35.3238, -118.5270. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 19 km (12 mi) E of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 103 km (64 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Ventura County, CA 121 km (75 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Kings County, CA 143 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

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

  1. 1.8 25km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  2. 1.7 7km SSW of Mojave, CA
  3. 1.5 8km N of Mojave, CA
  4. 1.7 14km SW of Lamont, CA
  5. 1.7 7km S of Mojave, CA
  6. 1.6 20km ENE of Arvin, CA
  7. 2.3 24km ENE of Arvin, CA
  8. 2.2 32km ESE of Lake Isabella, CA
  9. 2.2 20km NNE of Neenach, CA
  10. 1.6 5km S of Mojave, CA
  11. 1.6 22km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  12. 1.6 25km NNW of Tehachapi, CA
  13. 2.5 18km NE of Lebec, CA
  14. 1.9 18km E of Grapevine, CA
  15. 1.7 4km SE 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 4,100 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.