QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

9km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA

· 8.4 km deep · released about 13 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 65 kmSan Diego County 68 kmRiverside County 71 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
8.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Imperial County, 65 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1399 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 13 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 810,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 72× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 33.0890, -116.0558. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 65 km (41 mi) W of here earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA 68 km (42 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA 71 km (44 mi) S of here earthquakes near Riverside County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 17km ESE of Julian, CA
  2. 2.4 18km ESE of Julian, CA
  3. 1.6 15km S of Salton City, CA
  4. 1.7 15km S of Salton City, CA
  5. 2.2 15km S of Salton City, CA
  6. 1.6 4km ENE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  7. 1.8 17km ESE of Julian, CA
  8. 2.1 18km ESE of Julian, CA
  9. 1.5 7km WSW of Niland, CA
  10. 2.1 27km SSW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 1.9 3km SSW of Salton City, CA
  12. 1.9 13km W of Imperial, CA
  13. 2.3 19km ESE of Julian, CA
  14. 1.6 9km N of Borrego Springs, CA
  15. 1.9 2km ESE of Bombay Beach, 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 170,000 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.