EARTHQUAKEM5.0

M5.0 earthquake near Petrolia, CA

Map: the earthquake near Petrolia, CA, with plate boundaries

First reported as magnitude 4.6, the earthquake has since been upgraded to 5.0 by the US Geological Survey. Early estimates come within minutes from the first seismic stations; the reviewed figure takes in many more.

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck 114 km (71 mi) west of Petrolia, CA on Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 04:56 UTC, at a depth of 2 km (1 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest. The nearest city of a million or more people is San Francisco, California, about 405 km (252 mi) away.

USGS’s PAGER impact estimate is GREEN: little or no damage expected.

12 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM5.0
Depth2 km (1 mi)
Time (UTC)Nov 5 04:56
Location40.42°N 125.63°W
Nearest townPetrolia · 114 km
Energy477 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
Felt reports12
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 61 km (38 mi) from the boundary between the North American and Juan de Fuca plates. Most earthquakes happen along plate boundaries like this one, where the pieces of Earth’s outer shell collide, pull apart or grind past each other. Stress builds up over years until the rock suddenly slips.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

What kind of fault?

USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves shows it was a strike-slip earthquake: the two sides of the fault slid past each other sideways, like California’s San Andreas Fault.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 3 on the Modified Mercalli scale: weak.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 5.0 released roughly the energy of 477 tons of TNT. That is about 32 times the energy of a magnitude 4.0, a quake people nearby feel but that rarely causes damage. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5 in Chile in 1960, released about 5,600,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 56 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger within 300 km (186 mi) since 1900. The strongest:

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on November 5, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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