Earthquake near San Juan Capistrano, CA

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 10 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In San Juan Capistrano, 8 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: San Clemente, Ladera Ranch, Las Flores, Dana Point, Coto De Caza, Laguna Niguel.

USGS catalogues this as quarry blast, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.1 on 2024-05-01 — about 8,200 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1933 Long Beach, California Earthquake · 42 km WNW of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
2. 6.0 The 1910 Lake Elsinore, California Earthquake · 28 km NE of this epicentre May 15, 1910
3. 5.3 7km W of Newport Beach, CA · 42 km WNW of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
4. 5.2 8km ENE of Trabuco Canyon, CA · 23 km NNE of this epicentre May 31, 1938
5. 5.0 Near Lake Elsinore, California · 28 km NE of this epicentre Apr 11, 1910

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 33.4963, -117.5793. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.6 27 km WSW of Dana Point, CA 14:07 UTC
2. 2.6 27 km WSW of Dana Point, CA 20:44 UTC
3. 2.8 27 km WSW of Dana Point, CA 04:05 UTC
4. 1.7 5 km SSE of Home Gardens, CA 20:10 UTC
5. 1.8 4 km SSE of Home Gardens, CA 20:05 UTC
6. 2.1 9 km NNE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 04:27 UTC
7. 1.7 2 km NE of Yorba Linda, CA 01:32 UTC
8. 1.6 8 km SSE of Home Gardens, CA 20:48 UTC
9. 1.7 5 km SSE of Home Gardens, CA 20:54 UTC
10. 1.5 1 km NE of Yorba Linda, CA 21:38 UTC
11. 1.6 3 km W of Irvine, CA 19:34 UTC
12. 1.5 4 km SE of Home Gardens, CA 18:21 UTC
13. 1.5 6 km ENE of Villa Park, CA 11:32 UTC
14. 1.6 2 km N of Orange, CA 19:02 UTC
15. 1.6 2 km WNW of Villa Park, CA 01:42 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 15:04 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

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.