QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8md

16km NW of Parkfield, CA

· 4.6 km deep · released about 490 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 68 kmSan Luis Obispo County 69 kmMonterey County 73 kmSan Benito County 83 kmFresno 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 2.8 (md)
Depth
4.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 68 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2251 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 490 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 31,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.9× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 490 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 36.0003, -120.5630. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 68 km (42 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 69 km (43 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Monterey County, CA 73 km (45 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 83 km (51 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Fresno County, CA 117 km (73 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Fresno 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. 1.8 22km NE of San Lucas, CA
  2. 2.0 22km NE of San Ardo, CA
  3. 1.9 22km NNE of San Ardo, CA
  4. 2.1 22km NE of San Ardo, CA
  5. 3.9 22km NE of San Ardo, CA
  6. 2.0 7km WSW of Kettleman City, CA
  7. 1.8 8km SE of Huron, CA
  8. 1.6 8km NNW of Avenal, CA
  9. 1.8 17km NNW of Coalinga, CA
  10. 1.8 21km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  11. 1.9 23km ENE of San Ardo, CA
  12. 1.8 5km NE of Coalinga, CA
  13. 2.4 16km WNW of Lake Nacimiento, CA
  14. 2.3 5km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  15. 2.1 25km NW of Parkfield, 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 170 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.