QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

18 km NE of Mecca, CA

· 2.0 km deep · released about 570 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 6 kmImperial County 92 kmSan Diego County 107 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
2.0 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Riverside County, 6 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 932 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 570 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 27,000× 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 2.9 about 570 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 33.6957, -115.9555. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 6 km (4 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
Imperial County, CA 92 km (57 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA 107 km (66 mi) NE 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

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

  1. 2.1 9 km N of Indio, CA
  2. 1.6 20 km SSE of Joshua Tree, CA
  3. 3.8 13 km NNE of Borrego Springs, CA
  4. 1.8 15 km ENE of Coachella, CA
  5. 1.6 24 km ENE of Thermal, CA
  6. 1.9 16 km NNE of Borrego Springs, CA
  7. 1.7 6 km NW of Bombay Beach, CA
  8. 1.5 6 km SW of Salton City, CA
  9. 3.0 26 km WNW of Desert Center, CA
  10. 2.7 10 km NNE of Indio, CA
  11. 1.7 25 km WNW of Desert Center, CA
  12. 2.1 16 km NNE of Thousand Palms, CA
  13. 2.1 10 km NNE of Indio, CA
  14. 1.9 37 km NNE of North Shore, CA
  15. 1.9 5 km ESE of North Shore, 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 4.3 on 2016-09-27 — it released about 170 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.