QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

15km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA

· 20 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kern County 61 kmKings County 96 kmSan Luis Obispo County 96 kmSanta Barbara County 102 kmVentura County 106 kmTulare County 119 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
20 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kern County, 61 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1495 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 5.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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 35.2830, -119.3968. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kern County, CA 61 km (38 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kern County
Kings County, CA 96 km (59 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 96 km (60 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Santa Barbara County, CA 102 km (63 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Ventura County, CA 106 km (66 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Tulare County, CA 119 km (74 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 21km SW of Lamont, CA
  2. 1.8 15km ENE of Shafter, CA
  3. 1.5 20km SW of Lamont, CA
  4. 2.3 12km N of Taft, CA
  5. 2.1 19km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  6. 1.9 20km SW of Lamont, CA
  7. 2.0 23km NW of Grapevine, CA
  8. 1.9 15km NNW of Grapevine, CA
  9. 1.9 14km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  10. 1.8 3km W of Lamont, CA
  11. 1.6 2km WNW of Lamont, CA
  12. 2.0 11km SSW of Bakersfield, CA
  13. 1.7 10km E of Shafter, CA
  14. 2.0 5km SSE of Buttonwillow, CA
  15. 1.8 8km SSW of Lamont, 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 2016-02-24 — it released about 110,000 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.