160 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands

Yes. A magnitude 3.5 earthquake was recorded 160 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands at 20:43 UTC on 2019-12-06, 38 km deep.

2019-12-06 20:43 UTC · 38 km deep · released about 2.8 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area

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: 2019-12-06 20:43 UTC
Magnitude: M 3.5 (md)
Depth: 38 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 2447 days ago · we first saw it 2447 days ago

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 51 km (32 mi) from the epicentre. 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 2.8 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 61,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.8 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.8× 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 5.0 on 2019-10-06 — about 150 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 2 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

6.2 131 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 29 km SSW of this epicentre Sep 6, 1919
5.0 127 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 34 km SSW of this epicentre Jan 13, 1993

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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Aftershocks so far

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

3.5 153 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 20:00 UTC
3.8 117 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:16 UTC
4.0 123 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 01:51 UTC
3.7 147 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 01:26 UTC
4.1 142 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:50 UTC
4.1 148 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 12:44 UTC
3.9 137 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 13:00 UTC
3.7 163 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 15:06 UTC
3.8 114 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 01:56 UTC
4.0 126 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:57 UTC
3.9 123 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:56 UTC
3.8 165 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 11:24 UTC
3.9 112 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 23:49 UTC
4.0 120 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 06:47 UTC
3.5 125 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 21:10 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 21:31 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.