Earthquake near King City, CA

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In King City, 48 km away, the estimate is intensity I (not felt). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 120× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.8 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.7 on 2021-10-25 — about 36,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.5 10 km NE of San Simeon, California · 26 km ESE of this epicentre Dec 22, 2003
2. 6.2 28km NW of Cambria, CA · 10 km S of this epicentre Nov 22, 1952
3. 5.7 Southwest of Cambria, California · 37 km SSE of this epicentre Dec 7, 1906
4. 5.2 26km NNW of Lake Nacimiento, CA · 37 km ENE of this epicentre Dec 28, 1939
5. 5.2 25 km NW of San Simeon, California · 2 km NNW of this epicentre Aug 29, 1983

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 35.8150, -121.3457. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 23km S of Lopez Point, CA 16:37 UTC
2. 1.8 15km ENE of San Simeon, CA 03:50 UTC
3. 3.0 24km SSE of Lopez Point, CA 12:00 UTC
4. 2.2 24km NW of San Simeon, CA 12:34 UTC
5. 1.5 7km NNE of San Simeon, CA 02:14 UTC
6. 2.2 23km SSE of Lopez Point, CA 12:41 UTC
7. 2.0 24km SSE of Lopez Point, CA 09:55 UTC
8. 1.5 17km NNW of San Simeon, CA 00:42 UTC
9. 1.6 8km NE of San Simeon, CA 06:16 UTC
10. 2.2 8km NE of San Simeon, CA 18:52 UTC
11. 2.1 8km NE of San Simeon, CA 12:39 UTC
12. 2.5 8km NE of San Simeon, CA 13:13 UTC
13. 1.9 26km W of San Simeon, CA 03:22 UTC
14. 3.3 8km NE of San Simeon, CA 23:02 UTC
15. 2.0 8km NNE of San Simeon, CA 16:43 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:57 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.