QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

21km SE of Shandon, CA

· 11 km deep · released about 9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Luis Obispo County 24 kmKings County 73 kmSanta Barbara County 110 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
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Luis Obispo County, 24 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2146 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 9 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 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 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 35.5120, -120.2285. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Luis Obispo County, CA 24 km (15 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kings County, CA 73 km (45 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Santa Barbara County, CA 110 km (68 mi) N of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County
Monterey County, CA 127 km (79 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 6km W of Templeton, CA
  2. 3.3 1km W of Parkfield, CA
  3. 1.7 9km WSW of Atascadero, CA
  4. 2.2 4km WSW of Paso Robles, CA
  5. 1.7 14km SSW of Avenal, CA
  6. 1.9 14km SSW of Avenal, CA
  7. 1.6 22km WNW of Buttonwillow, CA
  8. 2.2 4km ESE of Cholame, CA
  9. 1.6 7km E of Atascadero, CA
  10. 1.7 8km SW of Atascadero, CA
  11. 1.6 6km NNW of Cholame, CA
  12. 3.2 4km NNW of Cholame, CA
  13. 2.3 5km SSE of Parkfield, CA
  14. 1.5 7km NNW of Cholame, CA
  15. 1.5 6km NNE of Santa Margarita, 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 9,100 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.