70 km W of Ferndale, CA

Yes. A magnitude 3.4 earthquake was recorded 70 km W of Ferndale, CA, at 10:38 pm PDT on 22 October 2026 (05:38 UTC), 10 km deep. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.

2026-10-23 05:38 UTC · 10 km deep · released about 1.7 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area

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: 2026-10-23 05:38 UTC
Magnitude: M 3.4 (ml)
Depth: 10 km below the surface
Felt: 1 report · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest: Humboldt County, 99 km E
Status: Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change

USGS · last changed by USGS 20 days ago · we first saw it 20 days ago

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 55 km (34 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 1.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 99,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,400× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3,100× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.7 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 3.6× 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 280,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 17 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

6.5 30 km WSW of Ferndale, California · 49 km ESE of this epicentre Apr 26, 1992
6.5 The 2010 Eureka, California Earthquake · 34 km E of this epicentre Jan 10, 2010
6.3 67 km W of Trinidad, California · 48 km NNE of this epicentre Nov 26, 1976
6.0 near the coast of Northern California · 28 km ENE of this epicentre Jun 6, 1960
6.0 33 km WSW of Ferndale, California · 39 km ESE of this epicentre Dec 10, 1967

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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 40.6178, -125.0938. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction from the epicentre
Humboldt County, CA	99 km (62 mi)	E	earthquakes near Humboldt County

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

Aftershocks so far

4 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 13:33 UTC. 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
reported intensity	1	3.1	13:33 UTC
felt reports	0	1	13:33 UTC
reported intensity	not reported	1	05:58 UTC
felt reports	not reported	0	05:58 UTC

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.