Earthquake near Ridgecrest, CA

A magnitude 1.8 earthquake was recorded 14 km (9 mi) NE of Ridgecrest, CA, at 12:54 am PDT on 29 September 2026 (07:54 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Searles Valley, China Lake Acres, Inyokern.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 13 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 810,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 72× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 7.1 on 2019-07-06 — about 100,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 16 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.3 The 1946 Walker Pass, California Earthquake · 34 km W of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
2. 5.8 16km NNE of Ridgecrest, California · 8 km NW of this epicentre Sep 20, 1995
3. 5.4 14km NW of Inyokern, CA · 34 km W of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
4. 5.4 4km N of Inyokern, CA · 23 km W of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
5. 5.4 17km N of Ridgecrest, California · 11 km NW of this epicentre Aug 17, 1995

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 35.7187, -117.5653. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.1 21 km N of Searles Valley, CA 00:45 UTC
2. 2.1 21 km N of Searles Valley, CA 00:42 UTC
3. 0.6 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA 23:16 UTC
4. 0.7 22 km ESE of Little Lake, CA 22:20 UTC
5. 1.2 6 km E of Ridgecrest, CA 20:14 UTC
6. 0.7 20 km WNW of Searles Valley, CA 16:09 UTC
7. 0.6 21 km E of Little Lake, CA 07:28 UTC
8. 0.6 15 km WSW of Searles Valley, CA 02:30 UTC
9. 0.9 16 km WSW of Johannesburg, CA 01:08 UTC
10. -0.1 12 km WSW of Searles Valley, CA 16:35 UTC
11. 0.8 22 km ESE of Little Lake, CA 05:48 UTC
12. 1.3 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA 00:59 UTC
13. 1.4 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA 21:22 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.