QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

18 km S of Cantua Creek, CA

· 9.0 km deep · released about 9.3 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kings County 53 kmFresno County 74 kmSan Benito County 76 kmMonterey County 91 kmMerced County 101 kmSan Luis Obispo County 107 kmMadera County 108 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
9.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Kings County, 53 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 175 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 9.3 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 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 100× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 9.3 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 36.3460, -120.3058. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kings County, CA 53 km (33 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Fresno County, CA 74 km (46 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
San Benito County, CA 76 km (47 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 91 km (57 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Merced County, CA 101 km (63 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 107 km (67 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 12 km SSW of Stratford, CA
  2. 2.5 9 km NNE of Kettleman City, CA
  3. 3.3 10 km NNE of Kettleman City, CA
  4. 1.5 21 km NE of San Lucas, CA
  5. 1.6 12 km E of Coalinga, CA
  6. 2.3 4 km NNE of Lemoore, CA
  7. 1.9 16 km NE of New Idria, CA
  8. 1.7 8 km S of Lanare, CA
  9. 2.9 13 km S of New Idria, CA
  10. 2.5 13 km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA
  11. 2.2 2 km ESE of Huron, CA
  12. 1.8 22 km NE of San Lucas, CA
  13. 2.1 22 km NNE of San Ardo, CA
  14. 1.9 2 km WSW of Huron, CA
  15. 1.7 10 km NW of Parkfield, 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 2023-08-10 — it released about 8,500 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.