QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

27km NNW of San Simeon, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 7.8 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 43 kmSan Benito County 87 kmSan Luis Obispo County 95 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
Magnitude
M 1.6 (md)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monterey County, 43 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1542 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.8 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.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 120× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.8 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.

Where

Epicentre 35.8550, -121.3357. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 43 km (27 mi) S of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 87 km (54 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 95 km (59 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 15km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  2. 2.5 16km WNW of Lopez Point, CA
  3. 1.5 8km NE of San Simeon, CA
  4. 2.1 25km NW of San Simeon, CA
  5. 2.6 24km NW of San Simeon, CA
  6. 2.7 28km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  7. 1.6 20km SE of Lopez Point, CA
  8. 1.6 20km NW of San Simeon, CA
  9. 1.6 10km W of San Ardo, CA
  10. 1.6 16km N of Cayucos, CA
  11. 1.6 25km NW of San Simeon, CA
  12. 1.6 8km NNE of San Simeon, CA
  13. 1.6 8km NNE of San Simeon, CA
  14. 1.6 17km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  15. 2.4 2km E of Lopez Point, 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.7 on 2021-10-25 — it released about 36,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

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