QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5mw

20km S of Big Pine, CA

· 8.9 km deep · released about 2.9 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Tulare County 94 kmInyo County 95 kmEsmeralda County 107 kmMono County 114 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 3.5 (mw)
Depth
8.9 km below the surface
Felt
4 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Tulare County, 94 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1752 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 2.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 59,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 6× 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 36.9890, -118.3253. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Tulare County, CA 94 km (58 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Inyo County, CA 95 km (59 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Inyo County
Esmeralda County, NV 107 km (67 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Mono County, CA 114 km (71 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Mono County
Fresno County, CA 121 km (75 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Fresno County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 33km ESE of Big Pine, CA
  2. 2.8 33km ESE of Big Pine, CA
  3. 2.4 34km ESE of Big Pine, CA
  4. 2.0 33km ESE of Big Pine, CA
  5. 1.9 34km ESE of Big Pine, CA
  6. 1.6 34km ESE of Big Pine, CA
  7. 2.4 8km N of Big Pine, CA
  8. 2.5 8km N of Big Pine, CA
  9. 1.6 8km N of Big Pine, CA
  10. 1.5 33 km NE of Independence, California
  11. 1.5 16km WSW of Deep Springs, CA
  12. 2.6 15km WSW of Deep Springs, CA
  13. 1.6 2km WNW of Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek, CA
  14. 1.5 31km SSW of Round Valley, CA
  15. 2.4 1km ENE of Bishop, 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 4.8 on 2016-02-16 — it released about 75 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.