QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

11 km W of Buttonwillow, CA

· -0.6 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 76 kmKern County 78 kmSan Luis Obispo County 78 kmSanta Barbara County 106 kmTulare County 116 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
-0.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 76 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 656 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 730,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 65× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 35.4143, -119.5868. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 76 km (47 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Kern County, CA 78 km (49 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 78 km (49 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Santa Barbara County, CA 106 km (66 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Tulare County, CA 116 km (72 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Ventura County, CA 124 km (77 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 24 km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  2. 1.6 17 km SE of Buttonwillow, CA
  3. 2.0 13 km N of Taft, CA
  4. 2.4 26 km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  5. 1.9 18 km SE of Buttonwillow, CA
  6. 2.3 18 km NE of Taft, CA
  7. 3.3 18 km SE of Buttonwillow, CA
  8. 3.3 11 km SW of Buttonwillow, CA
  9. 1.5 9 km N of Taft, CA
  10. 1.7 15 km NNE of Taft, CA
  11. 2.7 14 km NE of Taft, CA
  12. 1.5 19 km S of Rosedale, CA
  13. 2.1 6 km ENE of Rosedale, 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 4.9 on 2016-02-24 — it released about 42,000 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.