Earthquake Today California: Live Map and Latest Quakes

Key context

What is normal in California

Over the 30 years 1996-2025, USGS recorded 10,700 earthquakes of M3 or more in California: about 357 a year, or 30 a month. The past 12 months had 289, close to the 30-year average. Quakes of M6 or more average 0.4 a year here (12 in 30 years), and none happened in the past 12 months.

Busy years usually mean one large quake and its aftershocks: the peak year here was 2019 with 1,356. Counts cover the state of California and its coastal waters, including the offshore Mendocino area. They come from the USGS ComCat catalog, which records small quakes more completely in the US than elsewhere, so compare like with like.

Largest earthquakes recorded in California

Plates and faults

California sits on the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. The Pacific side moves north-west at about 5 cm per year, and that motion is spread over the San Andreas Fault and a whole system of parallel faults, plus thrust faults that build the mountains around Los Angeles.

North of Cape Mendocino the boundary turns into the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and the waters off Humboldt County are among the most active in the state. East of the Sierra Nevada, the Walker Lane and the Eastern California Shear Zone carry part of the plate motion, which is why Ridgecrest had a M7.1 quake in July 2019.

• San Andreas Fault (the 1857 Fort Tejon and 1906 San Francisco quakes)
• Hayward and Calaveras faults (East Bay)
• San Jacinto and Elsinore faults (Inland Empire and San Diego County)
• Thrust faults under Los Angeles (1994 Northridge, M6.7)
• Eastern California Shear Zone (1992 Landers, 2019 Ridgecrest)
• Mendocino Triple Junction (offshore Humboldt County)

Where the recent quakes were

Of the 60 quakes of the past 30 days, 60 were shallow (less than 70 km deep), 0 intermediate (70-300 km) and 0 deep (more than 300 km). 2 reached M4 or more. The places USGS named most often were Petrolia, CA (12), Toms Place, CA (5), Dana Point, CA (3).

Official sources and warnings

• USGS ShakeAlert: the earthquake early warning system for California, Oregon and Washington; it sends alerts through Wireless Emergency Alerts, Android phones and apps.
• MyShake app (Cal OES and UC Berkeley): free app that delivers ShakeAlert warnings in California.
• Southern California Seismic Network (Caltech and USGS): detailed catalog of Southern California quakes.
• Berkeley Seismology Lab and Northern California Seismic System: Northern California monitoring.

What to do in an earthquake

If you feel shaking: Drop, Cover and Hold On until it stops. Stay away from windows and heavy furniture, and do not run outside during the shaking. On a coast, strong or long shaking is a natural tsunami warning: move to high ground or inland at once, on foot if you can. Then follow your local officials; this page is not a warning service.

In California, use Drop, Cover and Hold On, and turn on emergency alerts on your phone so ShakeAlert warnings reach you. On the coast, move inland or to high ground after strong or long shaking.