Earthquake near King City, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 21 km (13 mi) from the epicentre. In King City, 26 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.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 180 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 86,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 61,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 5.4× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 180 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

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 15 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.7 The 1983 Coalinga, California Earthquake · 49 km E of this epicentre May 2, 1983
2. 6.4 1901 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 47 km SE of this epicentre Mar 3, 1901
3. 6.1 Northwest of Huron, California · 31 km NE of this epicentre May 26, 1905
4. 5.8 29 km NE of San Lucas, California · 8 km E of this epicentre Jul 25, 1926
5. 5.4 22 km SSW of Three Rocks, California · 31 km E of this epicentre Oct 25, 1982

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 36.3073, -120.8558. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.7 24 km NE of King City, California 06:48 UTC
2. 1.7 34 km WSW of Three Rocks, California 07:57 UTC
3. 1.7 18 km SSE of Tres Pinos, California 10:40 UTC
4. 1.8 6 km WSW of San Ardo, California 20:06 UTC
5. 2.2 21 km NE of Soledad, California 10:44 UTC
6. 1.7 21 km NE of Soledad, California 10:12 UTC
7. 2.2 21 km NE of Soledad, California 08:10 UTC
8. 2.8 18 km NW of Parkfield, California 17:47 UTC
9. 1.6 26 km NE of Soledad, California 15:53 UTC
10. 1.7 30 km NE of King City, California 05:37 UTC
11. 2.5 7 km W of San Ardo, California 01:49 UTC
12. 1.8 33 km NE of Soledad, California 15:43 UTC
13. 2.4 33 km NE of Soledad, California 01:57 UTC
14. 2.9 33 km SE of Tres Pinos, California 01:57 UTC
15. 2.6 8 km W of Three Rocks, California 20:04 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:38 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.