QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

6 km SW of Palmdale, CA

· 5.1 km deep · released about 6.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 40 kmVentura County 92 kmKern County 103 kmOrange County 103 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
5.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 40 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 501 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 6.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.6 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 34.5497, -118.1565. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 40 km (25 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Ventura County, CA 92 km (57 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Ventura County
Kern County, CA 103 km (64 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kern County
Orange County, CA 103 km (64 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Orange County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 8 km SSW of Mojave, CA
  2. 1.5 8 km SSW of Mojave, CA
  3. 1.5 8 km SSW of Mojave, CA
  4. 2.1 5 km NNE of Castaic, CA
  5. 1.9 5 km NW of Sylmar, CA
  6. 1.6 10 km SSW of Valencia, CA
  7. 2.5 10 km SSW of Valencia, CA
  8. 2.6 10 km SSW of Valencia, CA
  9. 1.8 2 km SE of North Hollywood, CA
  10. 1.6 2 km N of Universal City, CA
  11. 1.6 2 km NNW of Universal City, CA
  12. 2.5 10 km SSW of Valencia, CA
  13. 1.9 11 km SSW of Valencia, CA
  14. 1.7 2 km NNW of Universal City, CA
  15. 2.0 8 km E of Santa Clarita, 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 4.2 on 2020-07-30 — it released about 8,200 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.