103 km W of Petrolia, CA

Yes. A magnitude 2.3 earthquake was recorded 103 km W of Petrolia, CA, at 12:06 am PDT on 22 September 2026 (07:06 UTC), 2.5 km deep. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.

2026-09-22 07:06 UTC · 2.5 km deep · released about 72 lb of TNT

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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: 2026-09-22 07:06 UTC
Magnitude: M 2.3 (md)
Depth: 2.5 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Status: Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS 51 days ago · we first saw it 51 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 19 km (12 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 72 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 210,000× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 150,000× the energy of this one
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 13× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 2.3 about 72 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 7.0 on 2024-12-05 — about 13,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

5.9 61 km WSW of Ferndale, California · 48 km ENE of this epicentre Feb 4, 2010
5.5 60 km WSW of Ferndale, California · 50 km E of this epicentre Aug 24, 1983
5.0 65 km WSW of Ferndale, California · 44 km ENE of this epicentre Oct 6, 1941

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

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Aftershocks so far

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

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:23 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

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.