QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

9 km WNW of Templeton, CA

· 4.9 km deep · released about 12 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Luis Obispo County 37 kmMonterey County 89 kmKings County 106 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
4.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Luis Obispo County, 37 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 674 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 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 870,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 78× 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 35.5527, -120.8027. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Luis Obispo County, CA 37 km (23 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Monterey County, CA 89 km (55 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Kings County, CA 106 km (66 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Benito County, CA 120 km (75 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Barbara County, CA 133 km (82 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Barbara County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 15 km N of Cayucos, CA
  2. 2.3 14 km ENE of San Simeon, CA
  3. 2.4 10 km ENE of Cayucos, CA
  4. 1.7 16 km E of Cambria, CA
  5. 2.3 7 km W of San Simeon, CA
  6. 1.6 6 km ESE of Atascadero, CA
  7. 1.5 3 km NW of San Luis Obispo, CA
  8. 1.9 8 km WNW of Atascadero, CA
  9. 1.7 15 km ENE of San Simeon, CA
  10. 3.0 7 km WSW of Atascadero, CA
  11. 2.4 7 km WSW of Atascadero, CA
  12. 2.1 14 km ESE of Paso Robles, CA
  13. 2.1 11 km NE of San Simeon, CA
  14. 1.8 12 km W of Templeton, CA
  15. 1.8 9 km WSW of Atascadero, 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 6,700 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.