QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

4km NNW of Cholame, CA

· 3.8 km deep · released about 1.1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Luis Obispo County 43 kmKings County 57 kmMonterey County 105 kmSan Benito 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
3.8 km below the surface
Felt
4 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
San Luis Obispo County, 43 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1758 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 4 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 150,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 6,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.3× 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 35.7593, -120.3100. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Luis Obispo County, CA 43 km (27 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 105 km (65 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Benito County, CA 118 km (73 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Fresno County, CA 126 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. 1.7 8km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  2. 1.5 6km E of Atascadero, CA
  3. 1.9 3km SW of Huron, CA
  4. 2.8 8km NNW of Cholame, CA
  5. 3.0 7km NNW of Cholame, CA
  6. 1.5 13km SW of Huron, CA
  7. 1.8 6km NNE of Avenal, CA
  8. 2.6 10km NNE of Avenal, CA
  9. 1.5 34km S of Kettleman City, CA
  10. 1.9 33km NNE of Simmler, CA
  11. 1.6 18km NW of Parkfield, CA
  12. 1.8 11km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  13. 2.3 10km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  14. 2.0 11km NW of Parkfield, CA
  15. 1.8 22km SE 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 38 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.