Earthquake near Yosemite Valley, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 56 km (35 mi) from the epicentre. In Yosemite Valley, 20 km away, the estimate is intensity III (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: Yosemite Valley 20 km, intensity III · Mammoth Lakes 37 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4× more

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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.0 on 2020-04-05 — about 9.4 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 11 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.1 11 km WNW of Aspen Springs, California · 50 km E of this epicentre May 25, 1980
2. 6.0 7 km ENE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 43 km E of this epicentre May 25, 1980
3. 5.9 8 km NNE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 42 km ENE of this epicentre Sep 18, 1927
4. 5.9 11 km SE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 47 km E of this epicentre Sep 30, 1981
5. 5.7 12 km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, California · 49 km E of this epicentre May 25, 1980

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 37.6392, -119.3898. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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. 2.9 12km ESE of Mammoth Lakes, CA 15:20 UTC
2. 1.6 8km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 17:58 UTC
3. 1.7 22km ESE of Yosemite Valley, CA 06:01 UTC
4. 2.7 16km SE of Mammoth Lakes, CA 02:13 UTC
5. 2.6 8km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 08:47 UTC
6. 2.9 14km SSE of Mammoth Lakes, CA 12:26 UTC
7. 2.0 14km SSE of Mammoth Lakes, CA 12:22 UTC
8. 2.0 3km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 06:34 UTC
9. 2.5 9km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 07:33 UTC
10. 1.7 7 km SE of Mammoth Lakes, California 07:33 UTC
11. 1.8 9km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 07:05 UTC
12. 1.9 9km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 03:43 UTC
13. 1.9 9km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 01:56 UTC
14. 1.7 8km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 17:27 UTC
15. 1.7 8km E of Mammoth Lakes, CA 09:06 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 23:24 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.