QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

8km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 13 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Diego County 39 kmRiverside County 71 kmImperial County 99 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
12 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
San Diego County, 39 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1280 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 13 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 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 810,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 72× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 33.1850, -116.4037. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Diego County, CA 39 km (24 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA 71 km (44 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
Imperial County, CA 99 km (61 mi) W of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 17km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 1.7 16km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  3. 2.3 12km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  4. 2.1 11km ENE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  5. 3.2 17km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 1.6 8km NW of Julian, CA
  7. 2.0 13km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  8. 2.7 13km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  9. 1.8 1km ENE of Palomar Observatory, CA
  10. 2.3 17km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 2.1 17km NE of Borrego Springs, CA
  12. 1.8 24km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  13. 1.7 20km ESE of Anza, CA
  14. 2.6 4km SSW of Anza, CA
  15. 2.0 15km S of Salton City, 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 140,000 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.