QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

3km N of Cholame, CA

· 9.6 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Luis Obispo County 42 kmKings County 56 kmMonterey County 106 kmSan Benito County 119 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
9.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Luis Obispo County, 42 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2370 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 5.9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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 35.7498, -120.2997. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Luis Obispo County, CA 42 km (26 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kings County, CA 56 km (35 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Monterey County, CA 106 km (66 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 119 km (74 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Fresno County, CA 126 km (79 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 25km NW of Parkfield, CA
  2. 2.3 25km NW of Parkfield, CA
  3. 2.7 17km NW of Parkfield, CA
  4. 2.0 10km WSW of Huron, CA
  5. 2.3 17km NW of Parkfield, CA
  6. 2.1 17km NW of Parkfield, CA
  7. 1.6 6km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  8. 2.2 6km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  9. 2.0 3km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  10. 1.9 3km SE of Kettleman City, CA
  11. 1.8 6km NNE of Santa Margarita, CA
  12. 1.8 2km SE of Kettleman City, CA
  13. 1.8 2km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  14. 1.8 19km NW of Parkfield, CA
  15. 1.6 7km SW of Templeton, 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 14,000 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.