Earthquake near Escondido, CA

A magnitude 0.5 earthquake was recorded 31 km (19 mi) ENE of Escondido, CA, at 7:19 am PDT on 28 September 2026 (14:19 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Aguanga, Valley Center, Ramona, Hidden Meadows, Julian, San Diego Country Estates.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 0.15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 1.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 100,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 72,000,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 6,500× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 0.5 about 0.15 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 5.2 on 2025-04-14 — about 13,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.5 1km ENE of Borrego Springs, CA · 42 km E of this epicentre Apr 28, 1969
2. 5.4 20km NNW of Borrego Springs, CA · 35 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 7, 2010
3. 5.3 6km SSE of Hemet, CA · 50 km NNW of this epicentre Sep 23, 1963
4. 5.3 18km ESE of Anza, CA · 37 km NE of this epicentre Feb 25, 1980
5. 5.2 10km ESE of Anza, CA · 37 km NE of this epicentre Jun 12, 2005

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 33.2707, -116.8113. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 0.8 15 km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA 03:08 UTC
2. 0.8 3 km WSW of Borrego Springs, CA 03:00 UTC
3. 1.2 14 km ENE of Temecula, CA 02:27 UTC
4. 1.6 14 km ENE of Temecula, CA 02:26 UTC
5. 0.2 7 km WSW of Anza, CA 02:21 UTC
6. 0.9 8 km ESE of Valle Vista, CA 01:53 UTC
7. 0.8 21 km ESE of Anza, CA 00:43 UTC
8. 0.6 21 km SW of La Quinta, CA 00:08 UTC
9. 0.1 21 km ESE of Anza, CA 00:08 UTC
10. 0.3 3 km NE of Aguanga, CA 00:05 UTC
11. 1.3 21 km ESE of Anza, CA 00:03 UTC
12. 3.1 20 km ESE of Anza, CA 00:01 UTC
13. 0.7 22 km ESE of Anza, CA 22:52 UTC
14. 0.5 6 km ENE of Anza, CA 20:40 UTC
15. 1.2 6 km NNW of Lakeside, CA 19:58 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:37 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

Revisions

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

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.