QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.9mw

9 km NNE of Coso Junction, CA

· 5.1 km deep · released about 11 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 66 kmTulare County 81 kmKern County 114 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 3.9 (mw)
Depth
5.1 km below the surface
Felt
9 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Inyo County, 66 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 441 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 9 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 15,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 680× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 480× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 23× 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

Epicentre 36.1170, -117.8948. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Inyo County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Tulare County, CA 81 km (50 mi) E of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 114 km (71 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 15 km SSW of Olancha, CA
  2. 2.9 22 km N of Searles Valley, CA
  3. 1.6 20 km E of Little Lake, CA
  4. 2.1 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  5. 1.8 21 km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  6. 1.6 23 km ENE of Little Lake, CA
  7. 2.6 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  8. 1.8 12 km E of Coso Junction, CA
  9. 1.6 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  10. 1.5 23 km ESE of Little Lake, CA
  11. 2.6 22 km E of Little Lake, CA
  12. 2.3 16 km E of Little Lake, CA
  13. 2.2 10 km NE of Coso Junction, CA
  14. 1.8 20 km E of Little Lake, CA
  15. 1.6 15 km SSW of Olancha, 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 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — it released about 61,000 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.