QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

10km SSE of Cantua Creek, CA

· 6.9 km deep · released about 650 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 56 kmFresno County 66 kmSan Benito County 76 kmMerced County 95 kmMonterey County 97 kmMadera County 98 kmSan Luis Obispo County 117 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
6.9 km below the surface
Felt
9 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Kings County, 56 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2725 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 9 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 650 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 23,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.5× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 650 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 36.4277, -120.2637. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 56 km (35 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Fresno County, CA 66 km (41 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
San Benito County, CA 76 km (47 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Merced County, CA 95 km (59 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Merced County
Monterey County, CA 97 km (60 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Madera County, CA 98 km (61 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Madera County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 27km NNW of New Idria, CA
  2. 2.0 20km S of Cantua Creek, CA
  3. 1.8 11km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  4. 2.4 19km S of Cantua Creek, CA
  5. 2.2 20km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  6. 1.9 20km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  7. 2.5 20km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  8. 2.3 8km W of New Idria, CA
  9. 1.6 16km NW of Coalinga, CA
  10. 1.6 16km NNW of Coalinga, CA
  11. 3.1 4km NNW of Cantua Creek, CA
  12. 1.7 11km N of Avenal, CA
  13. 1.6 12km SSW of Huron, CA
  14. 2.0 8km NW of Cantua Creek, CA
  15. 2.0 19km S of New Idria, 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 4.0 on 2018-11-27 — it released about 46 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.