Earthquake near Holtville, CA

A magnitude 1.5 earthquake was recorded 8 km (5 mi) W of Holtville, CA, at 1:09 pm PDT on 30 September 2026 (20:09 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: El Centro, Imperial, Heber, Calexico, Brawley, Seeley.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,100,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 190× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5 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 5.3 on 2021-06-05 — about 450,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 41 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.9 The 1940 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 9 km ENE of this epicentre May 19, 1940
2. 6.6 The 1942 Fish Creek Mountains, California Earthquake · 34 km WNW of this epicentre Oct 21, 1942
3. 6.6 The 1987 Superstition Hills, California Earthquake · 42 km WNW of this epicentre Nov 24, 1987
4. 6.4 The 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake, California-Baja California · 20 km SSE of this epicentre Oct 15, 1979
5. 6.3 The 1906 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 9 km NNW of this epicentre Apr 19, 1906

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 32.8192, -115.4678. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.1 11 km WNW of Calipatria, CA 14:16 UTC
2. 1.3 5 km NNE of Progreso, B.C., MX 12:11 UTC
3. 1.1 3 km SW of Imperial, CA 06:07 UTC
4. 1.7 25 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 19:59 UTC
5. 1.1 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 10:33 UTC
6. 1.3 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 09:24 UTC
7. 0.9 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 06:05 UTC
8. 1.1 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 06:04 UTC
9. 0.9 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 05:59 UTC
10. 0.9 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 05:35 UTC
11. 1.2 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 05:34 UTC
12. 1.0 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 05:28 UTC
13. 1.6 37 km E of Calipatria, CA 01:07 UTC
14. 1.4 8 km W of Holtville, CA 23:33 UTC
15. 1.5 9 km WNW of Holtville, CA 23:18 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:40 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.