Earthquake near Big Pine, CA

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In Big Pine, 12 km away, the estimate is intensity II (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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: West Bishop, Bishop, Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 18 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 840,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 600,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 53× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 18 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.8 on 2016-02-16 — about 24,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 15 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1986 Chalfant Valley, California Earthquake · 47 km N of this epicentre Jul 21, 1986
2. 6.1 4 km NNW of Round Valley, California · 42 km NNW of this epicentre Nov 23, 1984
3. 6.0 Near Bishop, California · 23 km N of this epicentre May 6, 1910
4. 5.9 18 km NNE of Mesa, California · 50 km N of this epicentre Jul 20, 1986
5. 5.8 10 km NNE of Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek, California · 40 km N of this epicentre Jul 31, 1986

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 37.1190, -118.4117. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.7 5km ENE of Round Valley, CA 21:55 UTC
2. 2.5 2km W of Round Valley, CA 03:23 UTC
3. 1.8 2km W of Round Valley, CA 03:23 UTC
4. 1.9 5km S of Round Valley, CA 07:46 UTC
5. 1.5 23 km E of Big Pine, California 23:49 UTC
6. 2.1 29km E of Big Pine, CA 13:06 UTC
7. 1.7 17km NNE of Independence, CA 21:58 UTC
8. 1.8 17km NNE of Independence, CA 21:00 UTC
9. 2.4 19km WSW of Wilkerson, CA 02:41 UTC
10. 2.2 2km SSE of Round Valley, CA 05:54 UTC
11. 1.5 3km SSE of Bishop, CA 12:41 UTC
12. 1.9 1km SSE of Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek, CA 23:31 UTC
13. 2.3 10km SSW of Wilkerson, CA 18:14 UTC
14. 1.6 0km ENE of Bishop, CA 16:36 UTC
15. 1.9 9km WSW of Round Valley, CA 11:29 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:33 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.