QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

21km NE of Independence, CA

· 1.5 km deep · released about 1,600 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 67 kmEsmeralda County 101 kmTulare County 103 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
1.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Inyo County, 67 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1528 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,600 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,600 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 36.9180, -118.0077. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 67 km (41 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Esmeralda County, NV 101 km (63 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Tulare County, CA 103 km (64 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Mono County, CA 135 km (84 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Mono County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 27 km ESE of Big Pine, California
  2. 1.7 27 km ESE of Big Pine, California
  3. 1.6 36km ENE of Independence, CA
  4. 1.8 22km ESE of Lone Pine, CA
  5. 2.1 5km E of Wilkerson, CA
  6. 2.3 5km E of Wilkerson, CA
  7. 1.7 8km NE of Big Pine, CA
  8. 2.4 8km NE of Big Pine, CA
  9. 2.0 8km NE of Big Pine, CA
  10. 1.7 10 km NE of Big Pine, California
  11. 2.1 13km WSW of Deep Springs, CA
  12. 2.0 9km ENE of Big Pine, CA
  13. 2.1 7km ESE of Deep Springs, CA
  14. 2.6 37km NW of Stovepipe Wells, CA
  15. 1.8 10km NNW of Independence, 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 4.8 on 2016-02-16 — it released about 270 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.