QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

18km NNE of Montecito, CA

· 1.1 km deep · released about 6.2 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ventura County 44 kmSanta Barbara County 47 kmKern County 112 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
1.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Ventura County, 44 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1451 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 6.2 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 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 6.2 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 34.5778, -119.5287. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ventura County, CA 44 km (27 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Santa Barbara County, CA 47 km (29 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Kern County, CA 112 km (70 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 123 km (76 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Los Angeles County, CA 124 km (77 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 13 km WNW of Ventura, CA
  2. 1.6 30 km NNE of Montecito, CA
  3. 2.4 20 km S of Carpinteria, CA
  4. 1.6 10km WSW of Ventura, CA
  5. 2.1 19km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  6. 1.6 12km ESE of Carpinteria, CA
  7. 1.5 22km NE of Santa Ynez, CA
  8. 1.6 19km SSW of Santa Barbara, CA
  9. 3.1 21km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  10. 1.8 20km S of Santa Barbara, CA
  11. 1.6 9km W of Isla Vista, CA
  12. 1.5 18km NNE of Ojai, CA
  13. 1.7 11km WSW of Ojai, CA
  14. 1.6 8km N of Carpinteria, CA
  15. 1.9 7km NNE of Carpinteria, 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 4.1 on 2016-03-12 — it released about 7,700 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.