Earthquake near Searles Valley, CA

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 500× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.2 about 1.9 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 710,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 13 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.0 Death Valley area, California · 35 km E of this epicentre Nov 4, 1908
2. 5.9 Death Valley area, California · 35 km E of this epicentre Nov 10, 1916
3. 5.8 16km NNE of Ridgecrest, California · 33 km SW of this epicentre Sep 20, 1995
4. 5.4 17km N of Ridgecrest, California · 33 km SW of this epicentre Aug 17, 1995
5. 5.3 27km E of Coso Junction, California · 27 km WNW of this epicentre Nov 27, 1996

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 35.9693, -117.3823. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 0.5 21 km E of Little Lake, CA 04:48 UTC
2. 0.8 9 km NE of Coso Junction, CA 23:51 UTC
3. 1.0 27 km E of Coso Junction, CA 20:16 UTC
4. 0.8 9 km ENE of Coso Junction, CA 18:29 UTC
5. 0.6 15 km NE of Ridgecrest, CA 18:11 UTC
6. 0.7 14 km SSW of Searles Valley, CA 17:40 UTC
7. 0.6 20 km N of Searles Valley, CA 06:01 UTC
8. 1.6 12 km E of Coso Junction, CA 05:53 UTC
9. 0.8 8 km ENE of Coso Junction, CA 23:15 UTC
10. 1.4 10 km ENE of Coso Junction, CA 21:47 UTC
11. 0.7 13 km ENE of Ridgecrest, CA 14:16 UTC
12. 1.9 9 km ENE of Coso Junction, CA 11:14 UTC
13. 0.7 14 km WSW of Searles Valley, CA 07:16 UTC
14. 0.9 22 km ESE of Little Lake, CA 16:36 UTC
15. 1.9 14 km WSW of Searles Valley, CA 14:43 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:01 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.