QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

14km ENE of Thousand Palms, CA

· 3.2 km deep · released about 1,400 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 29 kmSan Diego County 107 kmSan Bernardino County 108 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
3.2 km below the surface
Felt
57 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Riverside County, 29 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1263 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 57 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,400 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 240,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,400 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.5× 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 33.8860, -116.2578. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 29 km (18 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 107 km (67 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
San Bernardino County, CA 108 km (67 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County
Imperial County, CA 126 km (78 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 18km ESE of Anza, CA
  2. 1.5 16km S of La Quinta, CA
  3. 1.5 17km N of North Shore, CA
  4. 2.0 22km SSW of La Quinta, CA
  5. 2.6 16km NE of Coachella, CA
  6. 1.7 7km NNW of Anza, CA
  7. 1.8 9km N of Idyllwild, CA
  8. 1.7 21km ESE of Anza, CA
  9. 1.5 10km SSW of Joshua Tree, CA
  10. 1.7 14km W of Morongo Valley, CA
  11. 1.6 15km W of Morongo Valley, CA
  12. 2.0 16km NNE of Indio, CA
  13. 1.7 18km N of North Shore, CA
  14. 1.5 3km NNW of Cabazon, CA
  15. 1.6 10km SSW of Joshua Tree, 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 4.9 on 2020-04-04 — it released about 440 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.