Earthquake near Big Pine, 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 Big Pine, 5 km away, the estimate is intensity III (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: Big Pine 5 km, intensity III · Bishop 23 km, intensity II · Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek 26 km, intensity II · West Bishop 26 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 610 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 25,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 18,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.6× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 610 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 4.8 on 2016-02-16 — about 710 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 17 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.4 The 1986 Chalfant Valley, California Earthquake · 42 km NNW of this epicentre Jul 21, 1986
2. 6.1 4 km NNW of Round Valley, California · 43 km NW of this epicentre Nov 23, 1984
3. 6.1 46km E of Big Pine, California · 42 km E of this epicentre May 17, 1993
4. 6.0 Near Bishop, California · 21 km NW of this epicentre May 6, 1910
5. 5.9 18 km NNE of Mesa, California · 44 km NNW of this epicentre Jul 20, 1986

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 37.1958, -118.2513. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.0 8km NE of Big Pine, CA 02:35 UTC
2. 1.7 10 km NE of Big Pine, California 12:13 UTC
3. 2.1 13km WSW of Deep Springs, CA 01:09 UTC
4. 2.0 9km ENE of Big Pine, CA 00:33 UTC
5. 2.1 7km ESE of Deep Springs, CA 11:51 UTC
6. 1.5 4km NE of Round Valley, CA 09:15 UTC
7. 2.1 1km SW of Round Valley, CA 20:34 UTC
8. 1.8 0km WSW of Round Valley, CA 00:12 UTC
9. 1.8 10km NNW of Independence, CA 09:28 UTC
10. 1.8 9km SE of Deep Springs, CA 11:07 UTC
11. 2.3 7km NE of Round Valley, CA 07:20 UTC
12. 1.8 27 km ESE of Big Pine, California 09:31 UTC
13. 1.6 13 km NE of Big Pine, California 04:24 UTC
14. 1.5 2km NNW of Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek, CA 22:46 UTC
15. 1.6 18km WSW of Wilkerson, CA 18:19 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:10 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.