Earthquake near Kettleman 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 33 km (21 mi) from the epicentre. In Kettleman City, 24 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: Kettleman City 24 km, intensity II · Avenal 27 km, intensity II · Lost Hills 33 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 920 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 370,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 16,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 12,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.0 about 920 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 4.3 on 2019-12-17 — about 89 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 1922 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 24 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 10, 1922
2. 6.0 2004 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 34 km W of this epicentre Sep 28, 2004
3. 5.6 8 km SW of Huron, California · 42 km NNW of this epicentre Aug 4, 1985
4. 5.5 1966 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 28 km W of this epicentre Jun 28, 1966
5. 5.0 11 km NNE of Shandon, California · 31 km W of this epicentre Mar 16, 1922

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 35.7945, -119.9882. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.1 3km WSW of Avenal, CA 05:29 UTC
2. 1.7 26km E of Cholame, CA 22:12 UTC
3. 2.1 26km S of Kettleman City, CA 20:47 UTC
4. 1.7 12km SE of Kettleman City, CA 17:32 UTC
5. 1.8 29km ESE of Cholame, CA 04:19 UTC
6. 1.7 11km N of Avenal, CA 10:22 UTC
7. 2.2 7km NW of Parkfield, CA 06:14 UTC
8. 1.7 6km SSW of Huron, CA 17:42 UTC
9. 1.7 10km NNW of Avenal, CA 18:23 UTC
10. 1.5 9km NNW of Avenal, CA 09:22 UTC
11. 2.8 9km ESE of Kettleman City, CA 06:46 UTC
12. 2.1 10km NNW of Cholame, CA 22:10 UTC
13. 1.7 5km E of Avenal, CA 19:25 UTC
14. 1.8 20km SSE of Kettleman City, CA 06:28 UTC
15. 2.2 5km NW of Parkfield, CA 08:49 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:33 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.