A light magnitude 3.2 earthquake hit 25 km (16 mi) away from Oxnard, California, United States, in the early morning of Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025 at 3.21 am local time (America/Los Angeles GMT -7). The quake had a very shallow depth of 15 km (9 mi) and was felt widely in the area.
Light magnitude 3.2 earthquake at 15 km depth
22 Oct 10:24 UTC: First to report: VolcanoDiscovery after 2 minutes.22 Oct 10:24: Now using data updates from USGS22 Oct 15:09: Magnitude recalculated from 3.4 to 3.2. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 15.66 to 15.03 km (from 9.7 to 9.3 mi).
Earthquake details
| Date & time | Oct 22, 2025 10:21:43 UTC - 4 weeks ago |
| Local time at epicenter | Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025, at 03:21 am (America/Los Angeles GMT -7) |
| Status | confirmed (manually revised) |
| Quality | 115 seismic stations |
| Shaking intensity | III Weak shaking near epicenter |
| Weather at epicenter at time of quake | Few Clouds 13.1°C (56 F), humidity: 89%, wind: 2 m/s (4 kts) from S |
| Estimated seismic energy released | 4 x 109 joules (1.11 megawatt hours, equivalent to 0.951 tons of TNT) | equivalent to ONE quake of magnitude 3.2 | about seismic energy |
Ground shaking from this quake
Nearby places
The closest larger town where the quake might have been felt is Oxnard, a city with more than 210,000 inhabitants in the United States, in 25 km (16 mi) distance south of the epicenter. People likely experienced very weak shaking there. Several smaller towns and villages are located closer to the epicenter and might have experienced stronger shaking.The following table shows some of the places that might have been affected (or not) by the shaking.
| Place | Max. shaking intensity(*) | Country |
User-reports for this quake (12)
The first report about ground shaking reached us after only 2 minutes, before other agencies reported it. We received 12 reports for this quake from the United States. The quake was reported to have been felt in up to approx. 7.8–13.5 km (4.8–8.4 mi) distance.
The majority of reports came from Santa Paula (6 reports), a town with 31,000 inhabitants in California in 6 km (3.7 mi) distance south of the epicenter, United States, Camarillo (1 report), a town with 68,000 inhabitants in 21 km (13 mi) distance south of the epicenter, and Oxnard (1 report) (25 km or 16 mi to the south). See the list of places where most people reported this quake further below.
Translate
Santa Paula / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 2-5 s : Watching TV still as I am a night owl and I felt a sudden sharp movement and heard my mobile home vibrating and shaking ???? for approximately 3-5 seconds.
Fillmore california (13.5 km E of epicenter) [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : small earthquake scared me shook the place a tiny bit my birds freaked out | One user found this interesting.
Santa Paula California (6.9 km S of epicenter) [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : I was laying in bed and the bed, picture frames and flimsy night stand shook. | One user found this interesting.
Santa Paula (85.6 km ESE of epicenter) [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 s
Santa Paula, Ca (6 km S of epicenter) [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vibration and rolling / 15-20 s
Santa Paula (6 km S of epicenter) [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 s
| Place | Distance from epicenter | Average reported Shaking Intensity | Nr. of reports |
|---|
The amount of shaking that occurs on the surface due to an earthquake is called the intensity. It is commonly measured on the so-called Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (MMI) ranging from 1 (not felt) to 10 (extreme shaking), and given in Roman numerals as I,II,...IX, X, and often displayed with color codes ranging from light blue to dark red.Earthquake intensity depends mainly on the magnitude and depth of the quake as well as the distance from the epicenter: The further away, the less shaking intensity occurs.Read more about the MMI scale!
| Shaking intensity | Number of reports | Min-Max distance from epicenter (*) | Average distance (*) |
|---|
| II: Very weak shaking | 2 | 7.2–21 km (4.5–12.9 mi) | 13.9 km (9 mi) |
| III: Weak shaking | 5 | 6–13.5 km (3.7–8.4 mi) | 7.8 km (4.8 mi) |
| IV: Light shaking | 1 | 22–22 km (13.9–13.9 mi) | 22 km (14 mi) |
Compare Quake Data
The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.
| Mag | Depth | Time GMT2025-10-22 | Epicenter | Agency |
| 3.24 ± 0.12 | 15 km9.3 mi±0.4 km | 10:21:43.87 | 6 km N of Santa Paula, CAEpicenter uncertainty: ± 0.2 km | USGS (United States Geological Survey) |
| 3.2 ± 0.12 | 15 km9.3 mi | 10:21:43.87 | GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIF.0 km (0 mi) epicenter difference with USGSEpicenter uncertainty: ± 1 km | EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre) |
| 3.1 | 15 km9.3 mi | 10:21:43 | SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA0 km (0 mi) epicenter difference with USGS | IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) |
Based on data from the past 55 years and our earthquake archive back to 1900, there are about 1,100 quakes on average per year in the area near the epicenter of this quake (within 100 km/61 mi):
The area where this quake occurred has a high level of seismic activity. It has had at least 6 quakes above magnitude 6 since 1900, which suggests that larger earthquakes of this size occur infrequently, probably on average approximately every 20 to 25 years.
Previous quakes in the same area of this earthquake
The earthquake occurred 6 weeks after a magnitude 3.6 earthquake had hit on Wednesday, Sep 10, 2025, at 08:53 pm local time (America/Los Angeles GMT -7) in 87 km (54 mi) distance to the north: The largest quake near the epicenter of this quake during the 10 years before was an event of magnitude 7.1. It had occurred 6 years earlier, on Friday, Jul 5, 2019, at 08:19 pm local time (America/Los Angeles GMT -7) in California, United States: The strongest-ever (since 1900) recorded quake in this area measured magnitude 7.5. It had occurred 73 years ago earlier, on Monday, Jul 21, 1952, at 04:52 am local time (America/Los Angeles GMT -7) in California, United States: Below is a list and map of larger or recent quakes that had occurred near the epicenter before this earthquake (within up to 100 km/61 mi distance, up to 300 km/183 mi for very large quakes above mag. 7). Filter and sort the list by magnitude or time.
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Oldest quakes are shown in yellow, most recent in red.
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