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Location:
15km W of Searles Valley, CA
Period:
4 Jul 2019 18:36:33 - 2 Aug 2019 20:58:58 (29 days 2 hours 22 minutes)
Volcanoes in 100km radius:
None
Earthquakes:
2446
69 swarms found nearby.
2000
S20000229.1(22.1km)
28 Feb
9 days 21 hours
154 earthquakes
2002
S20020928.1(10.1km)
28 Sep
1 day 21 hours
48 earthquakes
2006
S20060104.1(27.9km)
3 Jan
2 days 16 hours
37 earthquakes
S20061127.1(26.9km)
27 Nov
7 days 11 hours
109 earthquakes
2008
29 Nov
16 days 16 hours
369 earthquakes
2009
S20091231.1(28.7km)
31 Dec
1 day 18 hours
54 earthquakes
2010
S20101019.1(28.8km)
18 Oct
2 days 0 hours
40 earthquakes
S20101202.1(21.7km)
1 Dec
1 day 12 hours
30 earthquakes
2011
S20110728.1(27.9km)
28 Jul
2 days 6 hours
40 earthquakes
2012
S20121016.1(23.3km)
15 Oct
5 days 7 hours
74 earthquakes
S20121024.1(28.0km)
23 Oct
6 days 5 hours
80 earthquakes
2013
S20130812.1(25.0km)
11 Aug
2 days 13 hours
64 earthquakes
2014
S20140305.1(10.0km)
4 Mar
4 days 14 hours
79 earthquakes
2015
S20150217.1(21.6km)
16 Feb
11 days 1 hours
139 earthquakes
S20150602.1(26.9km)
1 Jun
1 day 6 hours
36 earthquakes
2016
S20160813.1(22.2km)
12 Aug
2 days 10 hours
46 earthquakes
2018
S20181130.1(28.7km)
29 Nov
2 days 17 hours
51 earthquakes
2019
5 Jul
39 days 7 hours
2694 earthquakes
5 Jul
12 days 17 hours
712 earthquakes
S20190706.3(26.0km)
5 Jul
7 days 1 hours
190 earthquakes
6 Jul
8 days 16 hours
302 earthquakes
S20190708.2(10.5km)
7 Jul
4 days 17 hours
70 earthquakes
S20190712.1(24.7km)
11 Jul
16 hours
29 earthquakes
S20190803.1(23.2km)
2 Aug
2 days 8 hours
77 earthquakes
S20190804.1(24.5km)
4 Aug
41 days 17 hours
1154 earthquakes
S20190815.1(24.3km)
14 Aug
2 days 19 hours
120 earthquakes
S20190819.2(25.4km)
19 Aug
1 day 7 hours
38 earthquakes
S20190821.1(28.0km)
20 Aug
3 days 6 hours
383 earthquakes
S20190825.1(23.4km)
24 Aug
3 days 7 hours
165 earthquakes
S20190902.1(25.6km)
2 Sep
1 day 14 hours
76 earthquakes
S20190905.2(27.1km)
4 Sep
3 days 10 hours
79 earthquakes
S20190910.1(26.2km)
10 Sep
3 days 21 hours
145 earthquakes
S20190915.1(23.8km)
14 Sep
25 days 14 hours
387 earthquakes
S20190918.1(26.3km)
17 Sep
14 days 12 hours
471 earthquakes
S20191005.1(23.7km)
5 Oct
3 days 16 hours
147 earthquakes
S20191007.1(29.1km)
6 Oct
1 day 16 hours
48 earthquakes
S20191011.1(25.5km)
10 Oct
4 days 18 hours
165 earthquakes
S20191018.2(27.1km)
17 Oct
21 days 21 hours
614 earthquakes
S20191108.1(28.1km)
7 Nov
9 days 8 hours
234 earthquakes
S20191119.1(26.8km)
18 Nov
10 days 3 hours
223 earthquakes
S20191211.1(27.0km)
10 Dec
2 days 14 hours
78 earthquakes
S20191214.2(26.6km)
14 Dec
1 day 17 hours
43 earthquakes
2020
S20200101.1(21.9km)
1 Jan
7 days 0 hours
130 earthquakes
S20200109.2(24.6km)
8 Jan
23 hours
27 earthquakes
S20200212.1(28.0km)
11 Feb
230 days 17 hours
4310 earthquakes
S20200219.2(24.3km)
18 Feb
3 days 4 hours
87 earthquakes
S20200309.1(25.4km)
8 Mar
12 days 22 hours
242 earthquakes
S20200322.1(26.8km)
21 Mar
10 days 13 hours
140 earthquakes
23 Mar
4 days 2 hours
52 earthquakes
S20200403.1(24.9km)
2 Apr
3 days 6 hours
67 earthquakes
S20200423.1(28.9km)
22 Apr
2 days 13 hours
45 earthquakes
S20200521.1(27.5km)
20 May
4 days 3 hours
97 earthquakes
S20200527.1(24.7km)
26 May
3 days 23 hours
82 earthquakes
S20200613.1(24.3km)
12 Jun
15 days 8 hours
334 earthquakes
S20200708.3(25.9km)
7 Jul
13 days 9 hours
239 earthquakes
S20200727.1(26.8km)
27 Jul
13 days 20 hours
183 earthquakes
S20200822.1(26.9km)
21 Aug
4 days 6 hours
66 earthquakes
S20200827.1(23.1km)
26 Aug
25 days 23 hours
356 earthquakes
S20201003.1(24.3km)
2 Oct
25 days 20 hours
320 earthquakes
S20201010.1(25.9km)
9 Oct
3 days 6 hours
59 earthquakes
S20201030.1(27.4km)
29 Oct
2 days 2 hours
54 earthquakes
S20201113.2(25.4km)
12 Nov
13 days 17 hours
181 earthquakes
2021
S20210404.1(23.5km)
3 Apr
11 days 13 hours
124 earthquakes
S20210820.2(27.3km)
19 Aug
19 days 14 hours
212 earthquakes
2022
S20220126.1(26.0km)
25 Jan
2 days 8 hours
59 earthquakes
S20220204.1(21.3km)
3 Feb
3 days 0 hours
45 earthquakes
S20220608.1(28.3km)
7 Jun
1 day 20 hours
34 earthquakes
2023
S20230503.1(25.7km)
2 May
1 day 6 hours
32 earthquakes
2024
S20240811.1(22.4km)
10 Aug
5 days 16 hours
78 earthquakes
AI-generated article — for informational and entertainment purposes only. May contain inaccuracies. Full disclaimerFound an error?

Seismic Swarm S20190705.2 in Searles Valley, California

Seismic swarm S20190705.2 was recorded 15 km west of Searles Valley, California, from 18:36 on 4 July 2019 to 20:58 on 2 August 2019. Over 698 hours and 22 minutes, the sequence produced 2446 earthquakes. Searles Valley lies within the Mojave Desert section of the Eastern California Shear Zone, a tectonically active region characterized by northwest-trending strike-slip faults that accommodate a portion of the Pacific-North America plate motion. The local geology features Quaternary alluvial fans, dry lake beds, and underlying basement rocks deformed by both the Garlock Fault to the north and the San Andreas system to the southwest.

Analysis of the first 100 events reveals predominantly shallow hypocenters between 1 km and 13 km depth, with magnitudes ranging from 0.4 to 4.0. The initial event registered magnitude 1.7 at 7 km depth, followed rapidly by additional small events. Within the first 12 hours, magnitudes increased, including events of 3.7, 4.0, and 3.2. Subsequent activity showed clustering at depths of 4–11 km, with multiple events above magnitude 3.0 occurring between 3 and 7 July. This pattern indicates fluid migration and stress triggering along pre-existing fault planes typical of swarm behavior in the region.

Historical records document 17 swarms in the same area since 2000. These occurred in 2000, 2002, 2006 (two swarms), 2008, 2009, 2010 (two), 2011, 2012 (two), 2013, 2014, 2015 (two), 2016, and 2018. The frequency suggests episodic strain release along distributed faults rather than a single through-going structure.

The 2019 swarm preceded the Ridgecrest earthquake sequence by hours, highlighting the interconnected nature of fault networks across the Searles Valley and Indian Wells Valley region. Depths consistently below 13 km align with the brittle-ductile transition zone in this part of the Mojave block. Continued monitoring remains essential given the area’s established swarm recurrence.

References

USGS Earthquake Catalog
California Geological Survey Fault Activity Map
Southern California Earthquake Data Center
SeismoSight internal swarm classification S20190705.2