The January 28, 1961 earthquake
M5.0near Little Lake, CA
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake 3.7 miles deep, centred in Kern County. The 432nd strongest in California’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 5.6 on July 31, 1952. 9 aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.0
- local magnitude (ml)
- Depth
- 3.7 mi
- 6.0 km below the surface
- Local time
- Saturday, January 28, 1961
- 00:12 PST; 08:12 UTC
- In California’s record
- 432nd
- strongest of 97,065 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event ci3347759 (“23km SSW of Little Lake, CA”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.
Aftershocks
Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 20 miles of the epicentre in the 30 days after.
9
Aftershocks in 30 days
3.6
Largest aftershock, Jan 28, 1961
5
On the first day
0
In the 7 days before
- The search radius is the surface rupture length expected for an earthquake of this magnitude (Wells and Coppersmith, 1994), at least 20 and at most 600 miles, so a great earthquake's sequence is counted along its whole fault.
- Before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s many small aftershocks went unrecorded, so early sequences read short.
Counties and cities within 50 miles
Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.
Counties
- Kern CountyCA · inside
- Tulare CountyCA · 2.8 mi
- Inyo CountyCA · 2.8 mi
- San Bernardino CountyCA · 22.1 mi
Cities, largest first
- RidgecrestCA · 23.0 mi
- California CityCA · 43.3 mi
- TehachapiCA · 48.2 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
2,553 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.
Earlier earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles, strongest first
- March 15, 1946M6.3
- July 31, 1952M5.6
- July 25, 1952M5.6
- July 25, 1952M5.5
- March 15, 1946M5.4
- March 15, 1946M5.4
- July 22, 1952M5.4
- March 18, 1946M5.2
- March 15, 1946M5.2
- July 22, 1952M5.1
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.