QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

6km W of Avenal, CA

· 20 km deep · released about 1,200 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 35 kmSan Luis Obispo County 71 kmFresno County 98 kmMonterey County 104 kmSan Benito County 105 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
20 km below the surface
Felt
17 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Kings County, 35 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2543 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 17 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,200 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 290,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 13,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 9,100× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,200 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.2× more

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 35.9970, -120.1968. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 35 km (22 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 71 km (44 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 98 km (61 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Monterey County, CA 104 km (65 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 105 km (65 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 10km SW of Stratford, CA
  2. 2.0 19km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  3. 2.1 23km NW of Parkfield, CA
  4. 1.8 7km NE of Coalinga, CA
  5. 1.9 5km ESE of Huron, CA
  6. 1.7 12km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  7. 1.6 5km ESE of Cholame, CA
  8. 1.6 11km NW of Avenal, CA
  9. 1.7 12km NNW of Avenal, CA
  10. 1.8 6km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  11. 1.7 22km NW of Parkfield, CA
  12. 1.9 11km NNW of Kettleman City, CA
  13. 1.5 12km W of Huron, CA
  14. 2.2 13km WNW of Huron, CA
  15. 1.8 8km SSW of Kettleman City, 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 26 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.