QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 0.6ml

Earthquake near Ridgecrest, CA

USGS: 20 km ESE of Little Lake, CA

4:16 pm PDT, Oct 2, 2026 · · 10 km deep · released about 0.22 lb of TNT

Every earthquake near Ridgecrest Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Inyo County 80 kmTulare County 105 kmKern County 111 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
4:16 pm PDT on 2 October 2026 ()
Where
29 km (18 mi) N of Ridgecrest, CA · earthquakes near Ridgecrest
Magnitude
M 0.6 (ml)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Inyo County, 80 km NNE
Nearest mapped fault
Airport Lake fault, 3 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2 hours ago

A magnitude 0.6 earthquake was recorded 29 km (18 mi) N of Ridgecrest, CA, at 4:16 pm PDT on 2 October 2026 (23:16 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 0.22 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 1.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 68,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 48,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4,300× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 0.6 about 0.22 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 6,000,000,000 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 · 30 km SW of this epicentre
  2. 5.8 16km NNE of Ridgecrest, California · 14 km SSE of this epicentre
  3. 5.4 14km NW of Inyokern, CA · 28 km SW of this epicentre
  4. 5.4 4km N of Inyokern, CA · 25 km SSW of this epicentre
  5. 5.4 17km N of Ridgecrest, California · 12 km SSE of this epicentre

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 35.8798, -117.6940. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection from the epicentre
Inyo County, CA 80 km (50 mi) NNE earthquakes near Inyo County
Tulare County, CA 105 km (65 mi) WNW earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 111 km (69 mi) WSW earthquakes near Kern County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.1 21 km N of Searles Valley, CA
  2. 2.1 21 km N of Searles Valley, CA

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.