Earthquake near Mammoth Lakes, 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 23 km (14 mi) from the epicentre. In Mammoth Lakes, 46 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 310 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 50,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 35,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 3.1× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.7 about 310 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 5.6 on 2016-12-28 — about 25,000 times the energy of this one.

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

1. 6.0 7 km ENE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 43 km S of this epicentre May 25, 1980
2. 5.9 8 km NNE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 38 km S of this epicentre Sep 18, 1927
3. 5.8 3 km NE of Mono City, California · 17 km W of this epicentre Oct 24, 1990
4. 5.7 12 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 50 km S of this epicentre May 25, 1980
5. 5.4 6 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 49 km S of this epicentre Jan 7, 1983

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 38.0605, -118.9203. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 31 km SSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 12:37 UTC
2. 1.6 30 km SSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 11:59 UTC
3. 1.8 31 km SSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 11:53 UTC
4. 1.7 31 km SSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 11:50 UTC
5. 1.6 31 km SSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 10:44 UTC
6. 1.7 4 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California 14:21 UTC
7. 1.9 4 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California 11:33 UTC
8. 2.0 4 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California 11:02 UTC
9. 1.7 6 km WSW of Mammoth Lakes, California 00:08 UTC
10. 2.0 28 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 14:08 UTC
11. 2.2 29 km WSW of Hawthorne, Nevada 16:30 UTC
12. 1.6 7 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California 11:36 UTC
13. 1.8 3 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California 00:51 UTC
14. 1.7 30 km ENE of Lee Vining, California 22:42 UTC
15. 1.6 10 km ENE of Bridgeport, California 12:15 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:53 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.