Earthquake near Santa Barbara, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 24 km (15 mi) from the epicentre. In Santa Barbara, 17 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: Santa Barbara 17 km, intensity II · Isla Vista 19 km, intensity II · Goleta 20 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 280 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 55,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 39,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 3.5× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 280 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — about 130 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 9 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 The 1925 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 6 km NW of this epicentre Jun 29, 1925
2. 5.5 30 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 38 km SE of this epicentre Feb 18, 1926
3. 5.5 10 km NE of Toro Canyon, California · 34 km NE of this epicentre Jun 29, 1926
4. 5.5 The 1941 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 18 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1941
5. 5.2 9 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 46 km ESE of this epicentre Apr 18, 1928

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 34.2723, -119.7502. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.5 18km NNE of Montecito, CA 11:25 UTC
2. 1.6 13km N of Goleta, CA 16:27 UTC
3. 1.7 12km NNE of Goleta, CA 17:11 UTC
4. 1.9 12km NNE of Goleta, CA 14:40 UTC
5. 1.6 16km S of Isla Vista, CA 04:59 UTC
6. 1.6 8km NNW of Ventura, CA 11:39 UTC
7. 1.8 6km NNW of Ventura, CA 13:42 UTC
8. 2.7 21km SW of Isla Vista, CA 18:25 UTC
9. 2.3 17km S of Santa Barbara, CA 06:07 UTC
10. 1.7 14km N of Goleta, CA 02:38 UTC
11. 2.1 21km S of Solvang, CA 16:15 UTC
12. 2.7 10km E of Carpinteria, CA 10:32 UTC
13. 1.9 13km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA 23:54 UTC
14. 1.8 18km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA 15:23 UTC
15. 2.4 18km NNW of Santa Cruz Is. (NW end), CA 14:20 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:56 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.