QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

16km N of Borrego Springs, CA

· 4.9 km deep · released about 1,800 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 52 kmSan Diego County 54 kmImperial County 105 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
4.9 km below the surface
Felt
29 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Riverside County, 52 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1287 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 29 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,800 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 190,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 8,500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,800 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.9× more

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 33.3960, -116.3967. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 52 km (32 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 54 km (34 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 105 km (65 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 18km ESE of Anza, CA
  2. 1.6 3km NNW of Palomar Observatory, CA
  3. 1.7 5km SW of Idyllwild, CA
  4. 2.1 24km ESE of Julian, CA
  5. 1.6 5km NW of Palomar Observatory, CA
  6. 1.6 25km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  7. 2.2 13km ENE of Coachella, CA
  8. 1.5 13km ENE of Coachella, CA
  9. 1.9 12km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  10. 1.7 17km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  11. 1.6 4km SW of Salton City, CA
  12. 2.0 10km NE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  13. 2.0 13km NE of Borrego Springs, CA
  14. 1.9 6km SW of Idyllwild, CA
  15. 1.5 14km E of Ocotillo Wells, 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 5.2 on 2016-06-10 — it released about 1,000 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.