QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.5md

15km SSW of Kettleman City, CA

· 9.8 km deep · released about 140 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 27 kmSan Luis Obispo County 68 kmFresno County 103 kmTulare County 116 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 2.5 (md)
Depth
9.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 27 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2150 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 140 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 110,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 75,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 6.7× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 140 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 35.8775, -119.9995. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 27 km (17 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 68 km (42 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 103 km (64 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Tulare County, CA 116 km (72 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Monterey County, CA 125 km (78 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 127 km (79 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

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

  1. 1.7 13km NNW of Avenal, CA
  2. 2.8 12km NW of Parkfield, CA
  3. 1.6 9km NW of Avenal, CA
  4. 2.5 7km NW of Avenal, CA
  5. 1.6 9km NNW of Avenal, CA
  6. 1.6 12km NNW of Avenal, CA
  7. 1.6 13km NNW of Avenal, CA
  8. 1.5 12km E of Coalinga, CA
  9. 1.6 12km NNW of Avenal, CA
  10. 2.2 12km NNW of Avenal, CA
  11. 2.1 7km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  12. 1.5 7km NNW of Cholame, CA
  13. 1.7 12km SW of Huron, CA
  14. 1.8 14km SE of Kettleman City, CA
  15. 2.0 12km 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 580 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.