QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

2km NW of Palomar Observatory, CA

· 5.7 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Diego County 40 kmOrange County 89 kmRiverside County 91 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
5.7 km below the surface
Felt
1 report
Nearest
San Diego County, 40 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1336 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.9 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 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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 33.3688, -116.8863. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Diego County, CA 40 km (25 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Orange County, CA 89 km (56 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Orange County
Riverside County, CA 91 km (57 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Riverside County

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. 2.9 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  2. 1.6 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  3. 1.8 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  4. 2.0 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  5. 1.8 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  6. 1.5 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  7. 2.3 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  8. 1.7 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  9. 1.6 8km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  10. 1.9 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  11. 3.4 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  12. 1.5 9km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA
  13. 1.5 10km N of Borrego Springs, CA
  14. 1.9 6km WNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  15. 2.6 14km SE of Anza, 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 310,000 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.