QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

10km NW of Avenal, CA

· 9.5 km deep · released about 7.3 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 36 kmSan Luis Obispo County 78 kmFresno County 92 kmSan Benito County 99 kmMonterey County 101 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
9.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 36 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2588 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.3 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.3 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 36.0673, -120.2130. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 36 km (22 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 78 km (49 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 92 km (57 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
San Benito County, CA 99 km (61 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 101 km (63 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 19km NW of Parkfield, CA
  2. 1.6 13km ESE of Coalinga, CA
  3. 1.8 16km NW of Parkfield, CA
  4. 1.7 16km NW of Parkfield, CA
  5. 1.9 14km WSW of Stratford, CA
  6. 1.8 11km SW of Stratford, CA
  7. 1.9 11km NNW of Kettleman City, CA
  8. 2.6 10km NNE of Coalinga, CA
  9. 2.0 12km NNE of Coalinga, CA
  10. 2.5 10km N of Coalinga, CA
  11. 1.9 10km SW of Stratford, CA
  12. 1.6 18km S of New Idria, CA
  13. 2.0 19km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  14. 2.1 23km NW of Parkfield, CA
  15. 1.8 7km NE of Coalinga, 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 4,100 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.