152 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 8.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 19,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 870× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 8.7 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 18× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.9 on 2018-11-14 — about 39 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.0 112 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands · 50 km SE of this epicentre Oct 17, 2001
2. 5.1 122 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico · 32 km SSW of this epicentre Sep 6, 2004
3. 5.0 122 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands · 43 km SE of this epicentre Mar 19, 1984
4. 5.0 116 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands · 50 km SE of this epicentre Apr 5, 1984
5. 5.0 109 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands · 47 km SSE of this epicentre Oct 24, 2001

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 19.6911, -65.2436. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.1 106 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:29 UTC
2. 3.3 Puerto Rico region 23:46 UTC
3. 3.9 125 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 23:02 UTC
4. 3.0 151 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico 06:07 UTC
5. 3.3 119 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:03 UTC
6. 3.2 124 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 00:29 UTC
7. 2.7 Puerto Rico region 17:01 UTC
8. 3.0 120 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico 15:06 UTC
9. 3.5 146 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:54 UTC
10. 2.6 123 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 03:40 UTC
11. 3.0 122 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 06:15 UTC
12. 3.3 135 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 15:04 UTC
13. 3.4 Puerto Rico region 21:26 UTC
14. 3.8 145 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 19:21 UTC
15. 3.2 130 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico 00:00 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 19:28 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.