QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

3km SW of Newport Beach, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 17 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Orange County 18 kmLos Angeles County 72 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Orange County, 18 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1295 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 17 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 870,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 55× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 17 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 33.5987, -117.9522. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Orange County, CA 18 km (11 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Los Angeles County, CA 72 km (45 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
San Diego County, CA 127 km (79 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Ventura County, CA 138 km (86 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 4km SW of Compton, CA
  2. 2.8 2km ENE of Walnut Park, CA
  3. 2.7 2km WSW of Bell, CA
  4. 2.3 3km NNE of Buena Park, CA
  5. 3.0 11km WNW of Lake Elsinore, CA
  6. 1.7 2km S of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
  7. 1.8 19km ESE of Avalon, CA
  8. 1.6 10km WSW of Corona, CA
  9. 1.8 10km WSW of Corona, CA
  10. 2.1 10km WSW of Corona, CA
  11. 1.7 4km NE of Yorba Linda, CA
  12. 1.6 10km WSW of Corona, CA
  13. 1.6 6km SE of Chino Hills, CA
  14. 1.6 12km SE of Avalon, CA
  15. 1.8 3km SW of Chino Hills, 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 4,600 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.