Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 3.1ml
23 km W of Petrolia, CA
- When
- Magnitude
- M 3.1 (ml)
- Depth
- 15 km below the surface
- Felt
- 16 reports · strongest reported intensity III
- Nearest
- Humboldt County, 70 km NE
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1065 days ago
This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 16 people have reported feeling it to USGS.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 1,400 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 240,000× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,700× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,400 lb of TNT
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.5× 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 40.2937, -124.5532. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Humboldt County, CA | 70 km (44 mi) | SW of here | earthquakes near Humboldt County |
| Mendocino County, CA | 135 km (84 mi) | NW of here | earthquakes near Mendocino County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
56 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
- 2.2 13 km W of Petrolia, CA
- 1.8 12 km WSW of Ferndale, CA
- 2.5 32 km WNW of Petrolia, CA
- 2.4 16 km WSW of Petrolia, CA
- 1.7 18 km W of Petrolia, CA
- 2.3 21 km WSW of Petrolia, CA
- 3.0 55 km W of Petrolia, CA
- 1.7 15 km E of Petrolia, CA
- 2.6 19 km WSW of Ferndale, CA
- 2.8 19 km E of Petrolia, CA
- 3.0 19 km E of Petrolia, CA
- 2.1 18 km SSE of Rio Dell, CA
- 4.8 20 km E of Petrolia, CA
- 1.7 10 km W of Petrolia, CA
- 1.7 4 km ESE of Fortuna, 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 6.4 on 2022-12-20 — it released about 86,000 times the energy of this one.
From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.
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.