QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

3 km SSW of Imperial, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 12 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Imperial County 32 kmRiverside County 108 kmSan Diego County 113 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Imperial County, 32 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 948 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 12 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 870,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 78× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 12 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 32.8238, -115.5870. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Imperial County, CA 32 km (20 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Imperial County
Riverside County, CA 108 km (67 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Diego County, CA 113 km (70 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

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

  1. 1.7 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  2. 2.0 18 km WSW of El Centro, CA
  3. 1.6 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  4. 1.8 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  5. 1.7 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  6. 1.7 26 km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  7. 2.4 26 km WSW of Westmorland, CA
  8. 1.8 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  9. 1.5 13 km SSE of Bombay Beach, CA
  10. 1.8 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 2.1 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  12. 1.9 17 km ENE of Ocotillo, CA
  13. 2.0 6 km ESE of Puebla, B.C., MX
  14. 1.6 14 km ENE of Ocotillo, CA
  15. 1.6 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, 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 180,000 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.