Earthquake near Goleta, CA

A magnitude 2.7 earthquake was recorded 7 km (4 mi) SE of Goleta, CA, at 8:40 am PDT on 5 October 2026 (15:40 UTC). 40 people have reported feeling it to USGS. This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Santa Barbara, Isla Vista, Mission Canyon, Montecito, Summerland, Toro Canyon.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 330 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 46,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 33,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2.9× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.7 about 330 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 4.1 on 2017-05-17 — about 110 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 8 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 The 1925 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 10 km SSW of this epicentre Jun 29, 1925
2. 5.7 Near Los Alamos, California · 46 km WNW of this epicentre Jan 12, 1915
3. 5.5 30 km SW of Channel Islands Beach, California · 50 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 18, 1926
4. 5.5 10 km NE of Toro Canyon, California · 28 km ENE of this epicentre Jun 29, 1926
5. 5.5 The 1941 Santa Barbara, California Earthquake · 20 km ESE of this epicentre Jul 1, 1941

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 34.3868, -119.7758. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

1. 1.7 8 km SE of Goleta, CA 15:42 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:23 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.