QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9md

12km NNW of Kettleman City, CA

· 9.0 km deep · released about 19 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 19 kmFresno County 80 kmSan Luis Obispo County 89 kmSan Benito County 110 kmTulare County 113 kmMonterey County 117 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 1.9 (md)
Depth
9.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 19 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1619 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 19 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 790,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 560,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 50× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 19 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 36.1077, -120.0275. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 19 km (12 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Fresno County, CA 80 km (50 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 89 km (55 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
San Benito County, CA 110 km (68 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Tulare County, CA 113 km (70 mi) W of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Monterey County, CA 117 km (72 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 5km E of Avenal, CA
  2. 1.8 20km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  3. 2.2 5km NW of Parkfield, CA
  4. 1.5 12km SE of Coalinga, CA
  5. 1.8 16km NW of Coalinga, CA
  6. 1.6 6km N of Parkfield, CA
  7. 1.6 3km WSW of Avenal, CA
  8. 2.0 8km E of Huron, CA
  9. 2.0 11km NW of Parkfield, CA
  10. 1.7 5km NW of Parkfield, CA
  11. 1.9 10km NW of Parkfield, CA
  12. 1.8 11km NW of Parkfield, CA
  13. 1.7 7km SSW of Huron, CA
  14. 1.5 10km NNW of Avenal, CA
  15. 1.5 10km NNW of Avenal, 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 4,300 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.