8 km S of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

2017-05-20 02:40 UTC · 140 km deep · released about 4.1 tons 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: 2017-05-20 02:40 UTC
Magnitude: M 3.6 (md)
Depth: 140 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Nearest: Mayagüez Municipio, 71 km SE
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 3341 days ago · we first saw it 3341 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 4.1 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 42,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,300× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 3.6 about 4.1 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 8.5× more

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 18.5026, -68.3913. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction
Mayagüez Municipio, PR	71 km (44 mi)	NW of here	earthquakes near Mayagüez Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

2.4 45 km SE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 04:42 UTC
2.8 42 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 06:02 UTC
2.7 42 km SE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic 17:26 UTC
3.6 36 km SSE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic 14:56 UTC
3.3 5 km SSE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 15:39 UTC
2.4 15 km NW of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 13:25 UTC
2.6 17 km S of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 16:08 UTC
2.9 35 km NNE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 07:15 UTC
4.1 32 km SE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 09:15 UTC
4.0 12 km NW of Salvaleón de Higüey, Dominican Republic 02:07 UTC
4.2 7 km SE of Otra Banda, Dominican Republic 11:52 UTC
2.6 Mona Passage 22:32 UTC
3.6 14 km E of La Romana, Dominican Republic 00:19 UTC
3.1 38 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 01:23 UTC
3.1 13 km SSE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 10:46 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:06 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 4.3 on 2016-03-13 — it released about 10 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.