QuakeIndex

Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change

M 3.2ml

15 km NNW of San Simeon, CA

· 5.5 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monterey County 54 kmSan Luis Obispo County 86 kmSan Benito County 96 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
5.5 km below the surface
Felt
3 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Monterey County, 54 km N
Status
Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 243 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 3 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,900 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 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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 35.7593, -121.2787. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monterey County, CA 54 km (33 mi) S of here earthquakes near Monterey County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 86 km (53 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County
San Benito County, CA 96 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

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

  1. 2.6 13 km E of Cambria, CA
  2. 1.9 26 km NW of San Simeon, CA
  3. 2.1 13 km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  4. 1.6 11 km NNW of Lopez Point, CA
  5. 2.0 23 km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  6. 1.8 12 km SSE of Lopez Point, CA
  7. 1.7 2 km SW of San Ardo, CA
  8. 1.7 11 km NE of San Simeon, CA
  9. 2.9 13 km NNW of San Simeon, CA
  10. 1.7 29 km S of Lopez Point, CA
  11. 1.6 5 km ENE of San Simeon, CA
  12. 1.5 25 km SE of Lopez Point, CA
  13. 1.9 26 km NW of San Simeon, CA
  14. 2.2 8 km N of Cambria, CA
  15. 1.8 11 km ENE of San Simeon, 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 150 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.