QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

15km E of Kettleman City, CA

· 9.2 km deep · released about 9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 9 kmFresno County 86 kmSan Luis Obispo County 90 kmTulare County 95 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
9.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 9 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1369 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 9 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 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 9 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 35.9943, -119.7958. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 9 km (6 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kings County
Fresno County, CA 86 km (54 mi) S of here earthquakes near Fresno County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 90 km (56 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Tulare County, CA 95 km (59 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 120 km (75 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Benito County, CA 134 km (84 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Benito County

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. 1.6 12km NW of Avenal, CA
  2. 1.7 6km NNE of Avenal, CA
  3. 1.8 8km SW of Lemoore Station, CA
  4. 2.5 20km S of Kettleman City, CA
  5. 2.2 4km SSW of Armona, CA
  6. 1.6 19km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  7. 1.9 2km SSW of Lemoore Station, CA
  8. 1.5 21km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  9. 1.6 23km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  10. 1.6 13km ESE of Coalinga, CA
  11. 1.6 6km NE of Coalinga, CA
  12. 2.1 11km WSW of Huron, CA
  13. 1.6 32km S of Kettleman City, CA
  14. 2.1 11km W of Avenal, CA
  15. 1.5 9km 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 4.0 on 2018-11-27 — it released about 3,300 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.