QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

17km S of Kettleman City, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 12 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 27 kmSan Luis Obispo County 69 kmFresno County 104 kmTulare County 113 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 27 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1313 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 12 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 80× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 12 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 35.8523, -119.9478. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 27 km (17 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 69 km (43 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 104 km (65 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Tulare County, CA 113 km (70 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Tulare County
Kern County, CA 124 km (77 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kern County
San Benito County, CA 132 km (82 mi) SE 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

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

  1. 2.0 6 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  2. 1.8 25 km SW of Alpaugh, CA
  3. 1.7 5 km ESE of Cholame, CA
  4. 2.1 7 km SSW of Stratford, CA
  5. 1.9 7 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  6. 2.8 6 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  7. 4.3 6 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  8. 1.6 12 km E of Coalinga, CA
  9. 1.5 7 km S of Kettleman City, CA
  10. 1.6 11 km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  11. 1.6 11 km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  12. 1.6 10 km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  13. 2.5 7 km E of Avenal, CA
  14. 1.7 7 km E of Avenal, CA
  15. 2.0 8 km SSW of Stratford, 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 6,900 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.