M 6.37 in United States on 20 Dec 2022 10:34 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1351211
Earthquake Magnitude: 6.4M
Depth: 16.06 Km
Lat/Lon: 40.5233345 , -124.3933334
Event Date: 20 Dec 2022 10:34 UTC
20 Dec 2022 02:34 Local
Exposed Population: 80 thousand (in MMI>=VII)
Inserted at: 20 Dec 2022 10:40 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
2.2 (United States)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 Tsunami GDACS score
NCAL SS 0.9 0 0.9
nc73821036 Scaled population (raster) 3.96 Max wave alert 0.05m  
  C1 shakemap -0.59 Max wave realtime 0.05m  
  C2 shakemap 0.53      
  Country Vulnerability 0      
  INFORM_normalised 0.65      
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
USA - Earthquake (ECHO 21 Dec 2022)Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:05

  • An earthquake of 6.4 M at a depth of 18 km occurred off the coast of north-western California State (western USA) on 20 December at 10.34 UTC (2.34 local time). The epicentre was located offshore approximately 15 km west-southwest of Ferndale City (Humboldt County, California).
  • USGS PAGER estimated that up to 74,000 people were exposed to very strong shaking while 50,000 to strong shaking.
  • Around 80 aftershocks with magnitude up to 4.9 M have been recorded in the area.
  • According to media reports, as of 21 December, two people have died due to medical emergencies occurring during or just after the main event. Media also report 12 injured people and approximately 71,000 customers that have been impacted by power outages, most of them in the Humboldt county. In additon, there are reports of some damaged roads and houses. 
Detailed event map. European Union, 2026. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

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Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (90), NEIC (3), OCHA (1), WMO (2), USGS (5), (3), INFORM (4),