Earthquake near El Centro, CA

A magnitude 1.1 earthquake was recorded 43 km (27 mi) NW of El Centro, CA, at 11:04 pm PDT on 30 September 2026 (06:04 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Westmorland, Salton City.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.2 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 13,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 9,100,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 810× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.1 about 1.2 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 1,900,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 39 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.6 The 1942 Fish Creek Mountains, California Earthquake · 14 km SE of this epicentre Oct 21, 1942
2. 6.6 The 1968 Borrego Mountain, California Earthquake · 23 km NW of this epicentre Apr 9, 1968
3. 6.6 The 1987 Superstition Hills, California Earthquake · 7 km SE of this epicentre Nov 24, 1987
4. 6.4 The 1954 San Jacinto Fault, California Earthquake · 31 km NNW of this epicentre Mar 19, 1954
5. 6.3 The 1906 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 41 km ESE 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 33.0597, -115.8987. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.1 11 km WNW of Calipatria, CA 14:16 UTC
2. 1.1 3 km SW of Imperial, CA 06:07 UTC
3. 0.7 24 km NE of Pine Valley, CA 04:35 UTC
4. 1.1 11 km SSW of Borrego Springs, CA 04:04 UTC
5. 1.7 25 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 19:59 UTC
6. 1.1 10 km NNW of Ocotillo Wells, CA 19:09 UTC
7. 1.1 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 10:33 UTC
8. 1.3 23 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 09:24 UTC
9. 0.9 24 km ESE of Ocotillo Wells, CA 06:05 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.