Earthquake near Bishop, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 10 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. In Bishop, 17 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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: Big Pine, West Bishop, Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 49 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 310,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 220,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 49 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 4.8 on 2016-02-16 — about 8,800 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 23 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1986 Chalfant Valley, California Earthquake · 36 km N of this epicentre Jul 21, 1986
2. 6.2 9 km SW of Aspen Springs, California · 47 km NW of this epicentre May 27, 1980
3. 6.1 4 km NNW of Round Valley, California · 32 km NNW of this epicentre Nov 23, 1984
4. 6.0 Near Bishop, California · 13 km N of this epicentre May 6, 1910
5. 6.0 Mammoth Lakes area, California · 48 km NW of this epicentre Sep 14, 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 37.2147, -118.4122. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 10 km SW of Aspen Springs, California 20:00 UTC
2. 1.7 8 km WSW of Aspen Springs, California 16:19 UTC
3. 1.5 2 km SW of Mesa, California 08:56 UTC
4. 1.6 9 km WSW of Aspen Springs, California 05:43 UTC
5. 1.8 9 km SSW of Wilkerson, California 18:39 UTC
6. 1.7 10 km NE of Mesa, California 17:29 UTC
7. 2.2 26 km WSW of Wilkerson, California 22:25 UTC
8. 1.6 13 km WSW of Aspen Springs, California 22:51 UTC
9. 1.7 3 km NNW of West Bishop, California 05:48 UTC
10. 1.7 2 km NNW of West Bishop, California 05:47 UTC
11. 1.6 14 km SW of Aspen Springs, California 08:12 UTC
12. 1.9 14 km SW of Aspen Springs, California 07:30 UTC
13. 1.6 13 km N of Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek, California 03:06 UTC
14. 1.9 14 km SW of Aspen Springs, California 08:43 UTC
15. 1.8 36 km ESE of Big Pine, California 06:34 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 18:03 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

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.