QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4mw

7km NNW of Cholame, CA

· 8.5 km deep · released about 1.9 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Luis Obispo County 45 kmKings County 57 kmMonterey County 102 kmSan Benito County 115 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 3.4 (mw)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
24 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
San Luis Obispo County, 45 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1637 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 24 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

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.

Where

Epicentre 35.7800, -120.3323. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Luis Obispo County, CA 45 km (28 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Kings County, CA 57 km (35 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Monterey County, CA 102 km (63 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 115 km (71 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Fresno County, CA 125 km (78 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.3 1km W of Parkfield, CA
  2. 2.5 11km N of Avenal, CA
  3. 1.6 12km NW of Parkfield, 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. 1.8 24km NW of Parkfield, CA
  8. 1.5 12km NW of Parkfield, CA
  9. 1.6 23km ENE of San Ardo, CA
  10. 3.2 7km NW of Parkfield, CA
  11. 1.6 0km ENE of Kettleman City, CA
  12. 1.6 8km SSE of Huron, CA
  13. 1.8 22km NW of Parkfield, CA
  14. 2.2 4km ESE of Cholame, CA
  15. 1.7 13km ESE of Kettleman City, 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 22 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.