Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 3.2md
74 km W of Petrolia, CA
Yes. A magnitude 3.2 earthquake was recorded 74 km W of Petrolia, CA, at 3:37 am PDT on 15 October 2026 (10:37 UTC), 11 km deep. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 3.2 (md)
- Depth
- 11 km below the surface
- Felt
- 2 reports · strongest reported intensity II
- Nearest
- Humboldt County, 108 km ENE
- Status
- Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 5 hours ago
Earthquake alerts for Ferndale, CA
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Ferndale, CA. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.
At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 43 km (27 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 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.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 200,000× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,100× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,500× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,700 lb of TNT
- 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 7.0 on 2024-12-05 — about 580,000 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 20 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:
- 6.5 30 km WSW of Ferndale, California · 49 km E of this epicentre
- 6.5 The 2010 Eureka, California Earthquake · 47 km NE of this epicentre
- 6.0 Offshore Humboldt County, California · 48 km SSE of this epicentre
- 6.0 53 km SW of Ferndale, California · 42 km ESE of this epicentre
- 6.0 near the coast of Northern California · 46 km NE of this epicentre
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
Epicentre 40.4165, -125.1495. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Humboldt County, CA | 108 km (67 mi) | ENE | earthquakes near Humboldt County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
No further 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 . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.
Revisions
USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.
| What changed | From | To | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| felt reports | 1 | 2 | |
| reported intensity | not reported | 2.2 | |
| felt reports | not reported | 1 |
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.