Earthquake · automatic estimate, may change
M 1.8ml
17 km WSW of Tecopa, California
Yes. A magnitude 1.8 earthquake was recorded 17 km WSW of Tecopa, California, at 11:53 am PDT on 31 October 2020 (18:53 UTC), less than 1 km deep. The magnitude and location are an automatic first estimate and may change.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 1.8 (ml)
- Depth
- 0.3 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- San Bernardino County, 105 km S
- Nearest mapped fault
- Southern Death Valley fault, 12 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
- Status
- Automatic — a machine’s first estimate, which may change
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2204 days ago
Earthquake alerts for Pahrump, NV
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near Pahrump, NV. 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 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 14 km (9 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 4.1 on 2017-08-22 — about 3,000 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record since 1900 lists no earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km.
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 35.7840, -116.4032. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Bernardino County, CA | 105 km (65 mi) | S | earthquakes near San Bernardino County |
| Inyo County, CA | 125 km (78 mi) | NW | earthquakes near Inyo County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
55 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
- 2.7 32 km WSW of Tecopa, CA
- 1.5 17 km SSW of Tecopa, California
- 2.1 18 km E of Shoshone, CA
- 2.7 31 km NE of Fort Irwin, CA
- 1.5 38 km WSW of Shoshone, California
- 1.8 26 km NW of Baker, CA
- 2.2 27 km S of Tecopa, CA
- 1.5 19 km WNW of Shoshone, California
- 1.8 27 km S of Tecopa, CA
- 3.3 27 km S of Tecopa, CA
- 1.9 20 km N of Shoshone, California
- 1.5 12 km NE of Tecopa, California
- 1.8 18 km SSW of Tecopa, California
- 2.8 14 km SSE of Tecopa, California
- 1.7 19 km WSW of Tecopa, California
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.
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.