QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3ml

13 km E of Desert Hot Springs, CA

· 8.1 km deep · released about 79 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Riverside County 41 kmSan Bernardino County 103 kmSan Diego County 109 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 2.3 (ml)
Depth
8.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Riverside County, 41 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 572 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 79 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 190,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 12× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 79 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 33.9435, -116.3607. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Riverside County, CA 41 km (25 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
San Bernardino County, CA 103 km (64 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County
San Diego County, CA 109 km (68 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Imperial County, CA 137 km (85 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Imperial County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 6 km ENE of Desert Hot Springs, CA
  2. 2.0 6 km SSW of Idyllwild, CA
  3. 1.6 9 km NNW of Anza, CA
  4. 1.8 24 km S of Twentynine Palms, CA
  5. 1.8 9 km SW of Morongo Valley, CA
  6. 1.6 13 km W of Morongo Valley, CA
  7. 1.6 6 km SSW of Yucca Valley, CA
  8. 1.7 10 km N of Banning, CA
  9. 1.6 5 km SSW of Yucca Valley, CA
  10. 1.8 21 km ESE of Anza, CA
  11. 1.7 24 km S of Twentynine Palms, CA
  12. 2.1 25 km S of Twentynine Palms, CA
  13. 2.1 25 km S of Twentynine Palms, CA
  14. 1.8 18 km ENE of Thousand Palms, CA
  15. 1.8 25 km S of Twentynine Palms, 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 4.5 on 2018-05-08 — it released about 2,100 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.