Earthquake near Newport Beach, 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 13 km (8 mi) from the epicentre. In Newport Beach, 14 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: Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Turtle Rock, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 24 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 640,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 450,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 40× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 24 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 4.3 on 2021-09-18 — about 3,300 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 6 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1933 Long Beach, California Earthquake · 17 km NNW of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
2. 5.3 7km W of Newport Beach, CA · 16 km NNW of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
3. 5.2 8km ENE of Trabuco Canyon, CA · 45 km ENE of this epicentre May 31, 1938
4. 5.1 The 1941 Torrance-Gardena, California Earthquakes (Second Event) · 46 km NW of this epicentre Nov 14, 1941
5. 5.1 2km NW of Brea, CA · 49 km N of this epicentre Mar 29, 2014

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 33.4895, -117.9300. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.0 16 km SSW of San Pedro, CA 15:38 UTC
2. 2.1 9 km NNE of Trabuco Canyon, CA 04:27 UTC
3. 1.7 2 km NE of Yorba Linda, CA 01:32 UTC
4. 1.5 1 km NE of Yorba Linda, CA 21:38 UTC
5. 1.6 3 km W of Irvine, CA 19:34 UTC
6. 1.7 7 km SSW of Seal Beach, CA 03:24 UTC
7. 1.5 6 km ENE of Villa Park, CA 11:32 UTC
8. 3.0 45 km NE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 16:43 UTC
9. 1.6 2 km N of Orange, CA 19:02 UTC
10. 1.6 2 km WNW of Villa Park, CA 01:42 UTC
11. 2.4 16 km SSW of San Pedro, CA 02:12 UTC
12. 3.6 44 km NE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 00:32 UTC
13. 2.5 43 km NE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 23:16 UTC
14. 3.2 42 km NE of San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA 23:11 UTC
15. 1.8 16 km S of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 11:53 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:48 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.