QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

10km NW of Parkfield, CA

· 9.7 km deep · released about 6.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Luis Obispo County 64 kmKings County 64 kmMonterey County 78 kmSan Benito County 89 kmFresno County 118 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
9.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Luis Obispo County, 64 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1930 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 6.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.4 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 35.9583, -120.5153. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Luis Obispo County, CA 64 km (40 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kings County, CA 64 km (40 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kings County
Monterey County, CA 78 km (49 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 89 km (55 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Fresno County, CA 118 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

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

  1. 2.2 4km ESE of Cholame, CA
  2. 1.7 7km NE of Coalinga, CA
  3. 1.9 6km SSW of Huron, CA
  4. 3.4 7km NE of Coalinga, CA
  5. 2.8 8km NE of Coalinga, CA
  6. 1.8 22km NNE of San Ardo, CA
  7. 1.5 13km NE of Coalinga, CA
  8. 1.6 6km NNW of Cholame, CA
  9. 1.5 10km SE of Avenal, CA
  10. 1.6 6km WSW of Kettleman City, CA
  11. 3.2 4km NNW of Cholame, CA
  12. 2.8 10km W of Avenal, CA
  13. 1.9 10km W of Avenal, CA
  14. 2.2 11km NW of Parkfield, CA
  15. 2.1 22km NE of San Lucas, 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 13,000 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.