QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.2mw

16km S of Malibu Beach, CA

· 15 km deep · released about 29 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 54 kmVentura County 66 kmOrange County 89 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 4.2 (mw)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
18250 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 54 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 610 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 18250 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 29 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 5,800× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 260× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.2 about 29 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 61× 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 33.8850, -118.7045. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 54 km (33 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Ventura County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Orange County, CA 89 km (55 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Orange County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 10km WSW of Malibu, CA
  2. 1.5 6km ESE of Moorpark, CA
  3. 2.2 6km WNW of Malibu Beach, CA
  4. 1.7 14km SSE of Port Hueneme, CA
  5. 2.6 5km W of Malibu, CA
  6. 1.7 2km WNW of Silver Lake, CA
  7. 2.5 3km ESE of Carson, CA
  8. 1.7 22km S of Malibu Beach, CA
  9. 2.7 1km NNW of Signal Hill, CA
  10. 2.3 1km NNW of Signal Hill, CA
  11. 2.1 2km NW of Signal Hill, CA
  12. 3.6 15km SSE of Port Hueneme, CA
  13. 1.6 18km SSE of Malibu, CA
  14. 1.7 1km W of Manhattan Beach, CA
  15. 2.2 4km SSE of Malibu Beach, 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 1.4 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.