Earthquake near King City, CA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 28 km (17 mi) from the epicentre. In King City, 28 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Likely felt in: King City 28 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 550 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 28,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 19,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.7× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 550 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 4.0 on 2021-08-31 — about 65 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 21 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.7 The 1983 Coalinga, California Earthquake · 46 km E of this epicentre May 2, 1983
2. 6.4 1901 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 40 km SE of this epicentre Mar 3, 1901
3. 6.1 Northwest of Huron, California · 34 km NE of this epicentre May 26, 1905
4. 5.8 29 km NE of San Lucas, California · 7 km NE of this epicentre Jul 25, 1926
5. 5.8 1934 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 47 km SSE of this epicentre Jun 8, 1934

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 36.2478, -120.8197. 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 17km NW of Parkfield, CA 19:30 UTC
2. 1.5 11km SE of Pinnacles, CA 08:24 UTC
3. 2.2 24km NE of King City, CA 01:39 UTC
4. 2.3 5km ESE of Pinnacles, CA 08:53 UTC
5. 1.8 20km SE of Pinnacles, CA 18:15 UTC
6. 2.1 3km NNW of Pinnacles, CA 16:03 UTC
7. 2.0 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA 15:47 UTC
8. 1.6 3km NNW of Pinnacles, CA 16:41 UTC
9. 2.3 14km WSW of Cantua Creek, CA 20:41 UTC
10. 1.6 2km N of Pinnacles, CA 07:46 UTC
11. 1.5 22km WNW of New Idria, CA 05:09 UTC
12. 1.6 12km N of Coalinga, CA 04:23 UTC
13. 1.8 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA 02:03 UTC
14. 2.3 4km NNW of Pinnacles, CA 01:59 UTC
15. 1.6 21km SE of Pinnacles, CA 23:45 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:09 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.