Earthquake near Big Bear Lake, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 36 km (22 mi) from the epicentre. In Big Bear Lake, 3 km away, the estimate is intensity III (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.

Likely felt in: Big Bear Lake 3 km, intensity III · Big Bear City 4 km, intensity III · Lucerne Valley 24 km, intensity II · Yucaipa 28 km, intensity II · Lake Arrowhead 28 km, intensity II · Mentone 30 km, intensity II · Highland 33 km, intensity II · Redlands 35 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 950 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 350,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 16,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 11,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.0 about 950 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 4.5 on 2018-05-08 — about 170 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 29 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.3 The 1992 Landers, California Earthquake · 41 km E of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992
2. 6.3 The 1992 Big Bear, California Earthquake · 7 km SE of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992
3. 6.2 3 km SE of San Bernardino, California · 39 km WSW of this epicentre Jul 23, 1923
4. 6.0 The 1986 North Palm Springs, California Earthquake · 37 km SE of this epicentre Jul 8, 1986
5. 5.8 3km NE of Yucca Valley, California · 45 km ESE of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992

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 34.2435, -116.8828. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.3 7 km N of Big Bear City, CA 09:51 UTC
2. 1.8 7 km N of Big Bear City, CA 07:28 UTC
3. 3.3 7 km N of Big Bear City, CA 06:15 UTC
4. 1.6 4 km SE of Lucerne Valley, CA 22:19 UTC
5. 1.6 8 km SSE of Redlands, CA 18:14 UTC
6. 2.1 6 km SSW of Redlands, CA 16:57 UTC
7. 1.7 9 km NNW of Big Bear City, CA 06:57 UTC
8. 1.8 22 km N of Yucca Valley, CA 16:10 UTC
9. 1.6 6 km N of Beaumont, CA 21:07 UTC
10. 1.9 8 km ENE of San Jacinto, CA 15:49 UTC
11. 1.7 34 km NE of Lucerne Valley, CA 05:56 UTC
12. 1.8 9 km N of Cabazon, CA 18:08 UTC
13. 1.6 11 km SW of Morongo Valley, CA 15:20 UTC
14. 2.1 7 km WNW of Big Bear Lake, CA 00:49 UTC
15. 1.9 2 km E of Calimesa, CA 22:50 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 15:18 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.