Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 1.6ml
Earthquake near Brawley, CA
Yes. A magnitude 1.6 earthquake was recorded in Brawley, CA, at 5:04 am PDT on 20 October 2026 (12:04 UTC), 12 km deep. No felt reports to USGS yet.
USGS: 2 km NW of Brawley, CA
- When
- 5:04 am PDT on 20 October 2026 ()
- Where
- in Brawley, CA · earthquakes near Brawley
- Magnitude
- M 1.6 (ml)
- Depth
- 12 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Imperial County, 19 km ENE
- Nearest mapped fault
- Brawley Seismic Zone, under 1 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 8 hours ago
Earthquake alerts for Brawley, CA
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Brawley, CA. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
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.
Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Westmorland, Calipatria, Imperial, El Centro, Holtville, Seeley.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 6.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,300,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.6 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 5.3 on 2021-06-05 — about 340,000 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 36 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 6.9 The 1940 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 22 km SE of this epicentre
- 6.6 The 1942 Fish Creek Mountains, California Earthquake · 22 km W of this epicentre
- 6.6 The 1987 Superstition Hills, California Earthquake · 29 km W of this epicentre
- 6.4 The 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake, California-Baja California · 40 km SSE of this epicentre
- 6.3 The 1906 Imperial Valley, California Earthquake · 11 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 32.9890, -115.5467. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial County, CA | 19 km (12 mi) | ENE | earthquakes near Imperial County |
| Riverside County, CA | 93 km (58 mi) | NNW | earthquakes near Riverside County |
| San Diego County, CA | 115 km (71 mi) | W | earthquakes near San Diego County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
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.
Revisions
USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.
| What changed | From | To | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| review status | automatic | reviewed | |
| location | 1 km NW of Brawley, CA | 2 km NW of Brawley, CA | |
| longitude | -115.54 | -115.55 | |
| latitude | 32.99 | 32.99 | |
| depth | 9.89 | 12.08 | |
| magnitude | 1.43 | 1.56 | |
| location | 2 km WNW of Brawley, CA | 1 km NW of Brawley, CA | |
| longitude | -115.55 | -115.54 | |
| latitude | 32.98 | 32.99 | |
| depth | 9.05 | 9.89 | |
| magnitude | 1.7 | 1.43 |
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.