17 km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA

2024-05-20 12:17 UTC · 11 km deep · released about 18 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: 2024-05-20 12:17 UTC
Magnitude: M 4.0 (mw)
Depth: 11 km below the surface
Felt: 484 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking: intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert: green
Tsunami: USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest: Imperial County, 61 km E
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 145 days ago · we first saw it 145 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 484 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 18 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 9,400× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 420× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 300× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 4.0 about 18 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 38× 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 33.0280, -116.0047. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction
Imperial County, CA	61 km (38 mi)	W of here	earthquakes near Imperial County
San Diego County, CA	72 km (45 mi)	E of here	earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA	78 km (48 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

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

2.7 13 km WSW of Salton City, CA 19:16 UTC
2.5 6 km W of Borrego Springs, CA 12:32 UTC
1.6 8 km NNE of Westmorland, CA 23:02 UTC
2.0 12 km WNW of Calipatria, CA 15:59 UTC
1.8 5 km W of Borrego Springs, CA 21:05 UTC
1.9 13 km SE of Ocotillo, CA 05:37 UTC
1.6 17 km SE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 16:45 UTC
2.6 1 km SSW of Brawley, CA 22:00 UTC
2.1 21 km NW of Ocotillo, CA 16:24 UTC
1.7 11 km E of Julian, CA 23:27 UTC
1.5 5 km W of Borrego Springs, CA 15:43 UTC
2.3 17 km SW of Oasis, CA 12:02 UTC
1.5 18 km WNW of Progreso, B.C., MX 08:06 UTC
1.8 4 km SW of Imperial, CA 03:31 UTC
1.8 5 km WSW of Niland, CA 01:09 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 18:47 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 5.3 on 2021-06-05 — it released about 63 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.