Earthquake near Indio, CA

A magnitude 1.1 earthquake was recorded 18 km (11 mi) NNE of Indio, CA, at 3:46 am PDT on 1 October 2026 (10:46 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Sky Valley, Bermuda Dunes, Thousand Palms, Coachella, Indian Wells, Desert Edge.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.5 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 10,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,200,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 640× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.1 about 1.5 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 4.9 on 2026-01-20 — about 490,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 21 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.3 The 1992 Landers, California Earthquake · 43 km NW of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992
2. 6.1 The 1992 Joshua Tree, California Earthquake · 16 km NW of this epicentre Apr 23, 1992
3. 6.0 The 1948 Desert Hot Springs, California Earthquake · 18 km NW of this epicentre Dec 4, 1948
4. 6.0 The 1986 North Palm Springs, California Earthquake · 42 km WNW of this epicentre Jul 8, 1986
5. 5.8 3km NE of Yucca Valley, California · 35 km NW of this epicentre Jun 28, 1992

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 33.8797, -116.1768. 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. 0.8 21 km ESE of Anza, CA 16:01 UTC
2. 1.0 11 km S of Joshua Tree, CA 11:15 UTC
3. 0.6 21 km ESE of Anza, CA 10:50 UTC
4. 0.9 21 km ESE of Anza, CA 17:11 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 02:08 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.