QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5mw

13km NNW of San Simeon, CA

· 6.2 km deep · released about 2.6 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 55 kmSan Luis Obispo County 82 kmSan Benito County 97 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 3.5 (mw)
Depth
6.2 km below the surface
Felt
24 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Monterey County, 55 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1226 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 24 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.6 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 65,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,100× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.4× more

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 35.7473, -121.2455. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 55 km (34 mi) S of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 82 km (51 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
San Benito County, CA 97 km (60 mi) S 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

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

  1. 1.8 20 km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  2. 1.5 20 km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  3. 1.5 21 km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  4. 2.0 19 km WNW of San Simeon, CA
  5. 2.4 21 km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  6. 1.8 20 km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  7. 1.5 18 km N of San Simeon, CA
  8. 1.6 28 km S of Lopez Point, CA
  9. 2.4 27 km S of Lopez Point, CA
  10. 1.6 24km NW of San Simeon, CA
  11. 1.7 1km SE of Lopez Point, CA
  12. 1.6 18km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  13. 1.7 21km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  14. 1.7 3km ESE of San Ardo, CA
  15. 1.8 8km W of Templeton, 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 4.7 on 2021-10-25 — it released about 55 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.