QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

21km NNW of Tehachapi, CA

· 4.7 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 16 kmTulare County 105 kmVentura County 117 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
4.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 16 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1564 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 930,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 83× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 35.3013, -118.5600. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 16 km (10 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Tulare County, CA 105 km (65 mi) S of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Ventura County, CA 117 km (73 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Kings County, CA 142 km (88 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Kings County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 24km NE of Arvin, CA
  2. 1.5 8km SSW of Mojave, CA
  3. 2.6 25km SSW of Bodfish, CA
  4. 1.9 24km ENE of Arvin, CA
  5. 1.5 12km SE of Bodfish, CA
  6. 1.8 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  7. 1.9 14km ENE of Lake Isabella, CA
  8. 1.8 14km E of Lake Isabella, CA
  9. 2.0 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  10. 2.2 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  11. 1.7 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  12. 1.8 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  13. 1.5 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  14. 3.4 14km ESE of Wofford Heights, CA
  15. 1.9 21km SE of Bodfish, 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 4.0 on 2021-08-27 — it released about 2,600 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.