Earthquake near Costa Mesa, CA

A magnitude 2.2 earthquake was recorded in Costa Mesa, CA, at 3:17 am PDT on 29 September 2026 (10:17 UTC). 26 people have reported feeling it to USGS. This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Newport Beach, Irvine, Turtle Rock, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 67 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 230,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 160,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 14× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.2 about 67 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 2020-09-19 — about 2,900 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 12 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1933 Long Beach, California Earthquake · 9 km W of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933
2. 6.0 The 1910 Lake Elsinore, California Earthquake · 47 km E of this epicentre May 15, 1910
3. 5.9 The 1987 Whittier Narrows, California Earthquake · 49 km NNW of this epicentre Oct 1, 1987
4. 5.4 5km S of Chino Hills, CA · 37 km NNE of this epicentre Jul 29, 2008
5. 5.3 7km W of Newport Beach, CA · 9 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 11, 1933

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 33.6415, -117.9048. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.2 2 km SE of Home Gardens, CA 19:00 UTC
2. 1.5 5 km SSE of Home Gardens, CA 22:21 UTC
3. 1.3 7 km SSE of Home Gardens, CA 17:10 UTC
4. 1.2 2 km ESE of Home Gardens, CA 20:35 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:35 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.