QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6ml

15 km NNE of Pine Valley, CA

· 7.6 km deep · released about 3.5 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Diego County 30 kmRiverside County 97 kmImperial County 105 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 3.6 (ml)
Depth
7.6 km below the surface
Felt
244 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
San Diego County, 30 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 298 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 244 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.5 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 48,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.5 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.4× more

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 32.9477, -116.4727. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Diego County, CA 30 km (18 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Diego County
Riverside County, CA 97 km (60 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Riverside County
Imperial County, CA 105 km (65 mi) W 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. 3.2 4 km SW of Borrego Springs, CA
  2. 2.3 20 km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  3. 2.2 14 km N of Borrego Springs, CA
  4. 1.6 14 km N of Borrego Springs, CA
  5. 1.6 5 km WNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  6. 2.4 12 km NNE of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  7. 1.5 20 km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  8. 1.9 7 km WNW of Borrego Springs, CA
  9. 1.7 15 km ESE of Julian, CA
  10. 1.6 20 km SW of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  11. 1.6 15 km NE of Borrego Springs, CA
  12. 2.7 10 km N of Borrego Springs, CA
  13. 1.5 12 km E of Ocotillo Wells, CA
  14. 2.2 26 km WNW of Ocotillo, CA
  15. 1.9 20 km SW of Ocotillo Wells, 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 5.2 on 2025-04-14 — it released about 280 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.