Earthquake near Kettleman City, CA

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In Kettleman City, 6 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Avenal, Stratford.

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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.3 on 2019-12-17 — about 9,100 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 15 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.7 The 1983 Coalinga, California Earthquake · 43 km NW of this epicentre May 2, 1983
2. 6.5 1922 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 34 km SW of this epicentre Mar 10, 1922
3. 6.4 1901 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 48 km W of this epicentre Mar 3, 1901
4. 6.0 2004 Parkfield, California Earthquake · 39 km WSW of this epicentre Sep 28, 2004
5. 5.6 8 km SW of Huron, California · 27 km NW of this epicentre Aug 4, 1985

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 35.9540, -119.9725. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.5 20km S of Kettleman City, CA 05:42 UTC
2. 2.2 4km SSW of Armona, CA 05:28 UTC
3. 1.6 19km SSE of Kettleman City, CA 09:36 UTC
4. 1.9 2km SSW of Lemoore Station, CA 23:27 UTC
5. 1.5 21km SSE of Kettleman City, CA 21:21 UTC
6. 1.6 23km SSE of Kettleman City, CA 14:41 UTC
7. 1.6 6km NE of Coalinga, CA 09:12 UTC
8. 1.6 13km ESE of Coalinga, CA 00:22 UTC
9. 1.8 10km ESE of Shandon, CA 14:39 UTC
10. 1.6 6km NE of Coalinga, CA 15:31 UTC
11. 2.1 11km WSW of Huron, CA 00:13 UTC
12. 2.0 4km N of Cholame, CA 03:11 UTC
13. 1.6 32km S of Kettleman City, CA 15:04 UTC
14. 2.1 11km W of Avenal, CA 19:43 UTC
15. 1.5 9km NNW of Avenal, CA 19:29 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.