QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.6ml

27 km WSW of Dana Point, CA

· 7.5 km deep · released about 250 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Orange County 41 kmLos Angeles County 100 kmSan Diego 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 2.6 (ml)
Depth
7.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Orange County, 41 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 559 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 250 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 61,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 43,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 3.8× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 250 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 33.3358, -117.9433. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Orange County, CA 41 km (25 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Los Angeles County, CA 100 km (62 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
San Diego County, CA 114 km (71 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Ventura County, CA 158 km (98 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura 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. 1.6 48 km ENE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  2. 2.2 17 km S of San Pedro, CA
  3. 1.9 33 km ENE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  4. 1.5 2 km NW of Costa Mesa, CA
  5. 1.8 21 km SSE of San Pedro, CA
  6. 3.1 5 km S of San Clemente, CA
  7. 2.4 33 km ENE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  8. 1.9 6 km S of Huntington Beach, CA
  9. 2.6 6 km S of Huntington Beach, CA
  10. 1.8 6 km S of Huntington Beach, CA
  11. 1.7 26 km WSW of Carlsbad, CA
  12. 2.3 27 km SW of Carlsbad, CA
  13. 1.9 27 km NE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA
  14. 1.6 3 km SE of Dana Point, CA
  15. 1.5 3 km SSE of Dana Point, 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 4.1 on 2024-01-01 — it released about 150 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.