3 km SE of Huntington Beach, CA

2023-12-23 05:52 UTC · 13 km deep · released about 2.1 tons of TNT

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: 2023-12-23 05:52 UTC
Magnitude: M 3.4 (ml)
Depth: 13 km below the surface
Felt: 3493 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking: intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest: Orange County, 19 km E
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 531 days ago · we first saw it 531 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 3493 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 80,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,600× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,500× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 3.4 about 2.1 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.4× more

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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 33.6798, -117.9773. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction
Orange County, CA	19 km (12 mi)	W of here	earthquakes near Orange County
Los Angeles County, CA	63 km (39 mi)	SSE of here	earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Ventura County, CA	131 km (81 mi)	SE of here	earthquakes near Ventura County
San Diego County, CA	133 km (83 mi)	WNW 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

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

2.6 2 km SSE of Long Beach, CA 15:55 UTC
1.6 0 km SW of View Park-Windsor Hills, CA 07:06 UTC
2.8 0 km SSW of View Park-Windsor Hills, CA 15:19 UTC
2.6 2 km SE of Long Beach, CA 19:24 UTC
1.9 7 km S of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 09:42 UTC
1.5 1 km SSW of View Park-Windsor Hills, CA 21:09 UTC
2.0 4 km SE of Home Gardens, CA 19:42 UTC
1.6 5 km SE of Home Gardens, CA 21:00 UTC
1.6 11 km W of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 06:57 UTC
2.0 9 km W of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 11:29 UTC
1.8 1 km S of La Mirada, CA 21:03 UTC
1.5 2 km NE of East Los Angeles, CA 06:53 UTC
1.6 1 km SW of Rosemead, CA 17:43 UTC
1.6 5 km ESE of Yorba Linda, CA 21:15 UTC
1.6 4 km SE of Home Gardens, CA 21:38 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:49 UTC. 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 4.5 on 2020-09-19 — it released about 46 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.