QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

13 km NW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands

· 6.0 km deep · released about 7.6 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Culebra Municipio 32 kmVieques Municipio 55 kmFajardo Municipio 60 kmCeiba Municipio 66 kmLuquillo Municipio 73 kmNaguabo Municipio 79 kmRío Grande Municipio 82 kmHumacao Municipio 87 kmCanóvanas Municipio 92 km
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
Magnitude
M 3.8 (md)
Depth
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
25 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Culebra Municipio, 32 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2234 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 25 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 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 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 16× 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

Epicentre 18.4335, -65.0218. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Culebra Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 55 km (34 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR 60 km (37 mi) E of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 66 km (41 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Luquillo Municipio, PR 73 km (45 mi) E of here earthquakes near Luquillo Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 79 km (49 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.4 51 km NNE of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  2. 3.8 19 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  3. 3.5 18 km NE of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.5 36 km NNE of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.4 Virgin Islands
  6. 3.5 46 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 42 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  8. 3.4 44 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  9. 3.4 44 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  10. 2.6 19 km NNW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.4 31 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  12. 3.4 7 km NW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.4 54 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.4 44 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.8 39 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . 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 4.7 on 2018-04-06 — it released about 22 times the energy of this one.

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

On USGS

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