QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6mw

6 km WSW of Hermosa Beach, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 3.2 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Los Angeles County 43 kmOrange County 66 kmVentura County 84 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 3.6 (mw)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
1735 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Los Angeles County, 43 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 5 hours ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1735 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.2 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 52,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,300× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.2 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 6.8× 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.

Revisions

USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.

What changedFromToWhen
felt reports16751735
felt reports16181675
felt reports15601618
felt reports15061560
felt reports14571506
felt reports14061457
felt reports13531406
reported intensity4.13.2
felt reports6031353
measured intensity3.213.37
reported intensity3.14.1
felt reports562603

Where

Epicentre 33.8442, -118.4650. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Los Angeles County, CA 43 km (27 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Los Angeles County
Orange County, CA 66 km (41 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Orange County
Ventura County, CA 84 km (52 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ventura County

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

Aftershocks so far

No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

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 4.7 on 2024-09-12 — it released about 55 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.