Earthquake near Fern Forest, HI

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 13 km (8 mi) from the epicentre. In Fern Forest, 16 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Volcano, Eden Roc, Fern Acres, Hawaiian Acres, Mountain View, Ainaloa.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 19 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 790,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 560,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 50× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 19 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log₁₀E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 6.9 on 2018-05-04 — about 35,000,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 43 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.7 17 km SSW of Leilani Estates, Hawaii · 13 km E of this epicentre Nov 29, 1975
2. 6.7 Island of Hawai`i, Hawaii · 12 km ENE of this epicentre Sep 21, 1908
3. 6.7 22 km W of Volcano, Hawaii · 36 km WNW of this epicentre Nov 16, 1983
4. 6.4 Kaoiki area, Hawaii · 31 km WNW of this epicentre Mar 28, 1915
5. 6.2 Kilauea South Flank, Hawaii · 12 km ENE of this epicentre May 4, 1905

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 19.3193, -155.1288. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

60 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

1. 1.8 11 km E of Pāhala, Hawaii 10:53 UTC
2. 1.8 6 km SSW of Volcano, Hawaii 10:38 UTC
3. 1.8 7 km NNE of Pāhala, Hawaii 09:55 UTC
4. 2.2 4 km SSW of Pāhala, Hawaii 09:19 UTC
5. 2.2 13 km ENE of Pāhala, Hawaii 09:05 UTC
6. 2.2 6 km S of Volcano, Hawaii 08:23 UTC
7. 1.8 6 km S of Volcano, Hawaii 08:01 UTC
8. 1.8 6 km S of Volcano, Hawaii 07:00 UTC
9. 1.5 16 km SE of Fern Forest, Hawaii 06:54 UTC
10. 2.0 12 km NE of Pāhala, Hawaii 06:45 UTC
11. 2.2 6 km SSE of Pāhala, Hawaii 06:03 UTC
12. 1.8 6 km S of Volcano, Hawaii 05:54 UTC
13. 1.8 14 km SSE of Volcano, Hawaii 05:08 UTC
14. 2.3 6 km SSE of Pāhala, Hawaii 04:16 UTC
15. 1.7 11 km ENE of Pāhala, Hawaii 03:46 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 18:58 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.