QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

10 km NNW of Avenal, CA

· 12 km deep · released about 1,700 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 33 kmSan Luis Obispo County 81 kmFresno County 89 kmSan Benito County 100 kmMonterey County 104 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
12 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity I
Nearest
Kings County, 33 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 507 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,700 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,700 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 36.0828, -120.1770. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 33 km (20 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kings County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 81 km (50 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
Fresno County, CA 89 km (55 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
San Benito County, CA 100 km (62 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 104 km (64 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey 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.

  1. 1.9 15 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  2. 1.9 7 km E of Avenal, CA
  3. 2.2 7 km E of Avenal, CA
  4. 2.0 5 km S of Lemoore, CA
  5. 1.5 12 km NNW of Avenal, CA
  6. 1.5 20 km NNW of Parkfield, CA
  7. 2.1 19 km ESE of Kettleman City, CA
  8. 2.4 23 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  9. 2.3 7 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  10. 2.4 7 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  11. 3.4 7 km NW of Parkfield, CA
  12. 1.8 24 km SSE of Kettleman City, CA
  13. 1.6 9 km NW of Avenal, CA
  14. 1.8 13 km WSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  15. 2.2 17 km SSW of Kettleman City, 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 50 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.