QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

4km S of Westminster, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 6.2 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Orange County 23 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Orange County, 23 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1462 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 6.2 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 6.2 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 33.7275, -118.0127. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Orange County, CA 23 km (14 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 125 km (78 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
San Diego County, CA 139 km (86 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

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

  1. 2.0 7km SSE of Home Gardens, CA
  2. 1.8 7km N of Yorba Linda, CA
  3. 1.6 3km SW of Yorba Linda, CA
  4. 1.6 2km ENE of La Habra, CA
  5. 1.6 8km SSE of Home Gardens, CA
  6. 1.7 4km NW of Diamond Bar, CA
  7. 1.6 5km SE of Home Gardens, CA
  8. 2.1 18km S of San Pedro, CA
  9. 1.8 22km SSW of Newport Beach, CA
  10. 1.9 10km WSW of Corona, CA
  11. 1.5 4km NNW of Diamond Bar, CA
  12. 1.7 12km SSW of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
  13. 1.9 10km WSW of Corona, CA
  14. 1.8 22km SSE of San Pedro, CA
  15. 1.6 2km SSE of Dana Point, 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 32,000 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.