QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

12km S of Kettleman City, CA

· 4.1 km deep · released about 16 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 24 kmSan Luis Obispo County 71 kmFresno County 100 kmTulare County 113 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
4.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 24 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2382 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 16 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 970,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 680,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 61× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 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 35.8995, -119.9743. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 24 km (15 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 71 km (44 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 100 km (62 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Tulare County, CA 113 km (70 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
San Benito County, CA 127 km (79 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Kern County, CA 128 km (80 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kern County

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. 1.8 5km NE of Coalinga, CA
  2. 2.3 5km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  3. 1.8 16km S of Kettleman City, CA
  4. 1.7 16km S of Kettleman City, CA
  5. 1.8 12km S of Stratford, CA
  6. 2.2 14km ENE of Kettleman City, CA
  7. 2.2 14km S of Stratford, CA
  8. 1.9 13km S of Stratford, CA
  9. 2.0 10km WSW of Huron, CA
  10. 2.6 28km WNW of Buttonwillow, CA
  11. 2.2 28km WNW of Buttonwillow, CA
  12. 1.6 6km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  13. 2.2 6km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  14. 2.0 3km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  15. 1.9 3km SE 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 4.3 on 2019-12-17 — it released about 5,200 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.