QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8ml

5km SSW of Niland, CA

· 5.8 km deep · released about 550 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 25 kmRiverside County 72 kmSan Diego County 116 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 2.8 (ml)
Depth
5.8 km below the surface
Felt
3 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Imperial County, 25 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1387 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 3 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 550 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 28,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 19,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.7× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 550 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 33.2042, -115.5442. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 25 km (16 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 72 km (45 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 116 km (72 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego 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. 1.7 10km ENE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 1.5 5km WSW of Niland, CA
  3. 1.6 5km WSW of Niland, CA
  4. 1.7 10km NE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  5. 2.3 5km WNW of Bombay Beach, CA
  6. 1.8 10km SW of Niland, CA
  7. 2.0 10km SW of Niland, CA
  8. 1.6 11km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  9. 2.6 11km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  10. 1.7 11km ENE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 1.5 11km SW of Niland, CA
  12. 1.7 6km NE of Westmorland, CA
  13. 2.0 16km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  14. 1.6 14km WNW of Calipatria, CA
  15. 2.0 24km WSW of Westmorland, 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 5.3 on 2021-06-05 — it released about 4,100 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.