Earthquake near Searles Valley, CA

A magnitude 0.7 earthquake was recorded 20 km (13 mi) WNW of Searles Valley, CA, at 9:09 am PDT on 2 October 2026 (16:09 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 0.38 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 1.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 40,000,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 29,000,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2,500× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 0.7 about 0.38 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 3,600,000,000 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 · 31 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
2. 5.8 16km NNE of Ridgecrest, California · 5 km SSW of this epicentre Sep 20, 1995
3. 5.4 14km NW of Inyokern, CA · 30 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
4. 5.4 4km N of Inyokern, CA · 22 km SW of this epicentre Mar 15, 1946
5. 5.4 17km N of Ridgecrest, California · 5 km SW 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 35.8037, -117.6253. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

5 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

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:41 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.