105 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands

2016-10-20 01:04 UTC · 56 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.

When: 2016-10-20 01:04 UTC
Magnitude: M 2.9 (Md)
Depth: 56 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Nearest: Culebra Municipio, 123 km SSW
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 3543 days ago · we first saw it 3543 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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.

Where

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 19.2835, -64.7210. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction
Culebra Municipio, PR	123 km (76 mi)	NNE of here	earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR	135 km (84 mi)	NE of here	earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Luquillo Municipio, PR	146 km (90 mi)	NE of here	earthquakes near Luquillo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR	149 km (92 mi)	NE of here	earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Río Grande Municipio, PR	152 km (94 mi)	NE of here	earthquakes near Río Grande Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR	160 km (99 mi)	NE of here	earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

2.4 87 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:34 UTC
2.9 57 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:40 UTC
2.2 85 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 22:00 UTC
2.4 84 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 21:00 UTC
2.3 90 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:39 UTC
2.6 78 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 23:10 UTC
2.4 95 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 13:39 UTC
2.4 108 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 17:00 UTC
2.4 63 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 00:46 UTC
2.8 76 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 03:48 UTC
2.4 79 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 01:40 UTC
3.4 112 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 03:20 UTC
2.3 73 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 10:58 UTC
2.2 93 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:26 UTC
2.9 136 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 08:31 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:36 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.6 on 2016-01-15 — it released about 350 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

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.