QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

9km SE of Kettleman City, CA

· 29 km deep · released about 700 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 15 kmSan Luis Obispo County 81 kmFresno County 92 kmTulare County 104 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
29 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Kings County, 15 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1744 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 700 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 15,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 700 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 35.9543, -119.8860. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 15 km (9 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 81 km (50 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 92 km (57 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Tulare County, CA 104 km (65 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 124 km (77 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Benito County, CA 130 km (81 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 7km WSW of Avenal, CA
  2. 1.6 5km W of Avenal, CA
  3. 2.4 7km WSW of Avenal, CA
  4. 2.3 7km WSW of Avenal, CA
  5. 1.5 9km NNW of Avenal, CA
  6. 1.5 9km NNW of Avenal, CA
  7. 2.2 9km NNW of Avenal, CA
  8. 1.7 8km N of Kettleman City, CA
  9. 1.6 9km NW of Avenal, CA
  10. 2.0 12km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  11. 1.8 21km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  12. 1.6 22km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  13. 1.8 21km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  14. 1.6 14km SSE of Avenal, CA
  15. 1.7 12km N of Huron, 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 120 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.