QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

11 km SW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands

· 132 km deep · released about 6.8 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Culebra Municipio 32 kmVieques Municipio 48 kmFajardo Municipio 63 kmCeiba Municipio 65 kmLuquillo Municipio 75 kmNaguabo Municipio 77 kmHumacao Municipio 84 kmRío Grande Municipio 84 kmLas Piedras 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
132 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Culebra Municipio, 32 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2038 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 6.8 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 25,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 790× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 6.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 14× 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 18.2675, -65.0073. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Culebra Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 48 km (30 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR 63 km (39 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 65 km (40 mi) E of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Luquillo Municipio, PR 75 km (47 mi) E of here earthquakes near Luquillo Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 77 km (48 mi) E of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 28 km SSW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  2. 3.7 27 km S of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  3. 3.5 28 km NNE of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.5 32 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  5. 3.1 21 km WNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  6. 3.5 34 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.0 10 km NNW of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  8. 3.1 9 km WSW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.4 37 km NW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  10. 3.3 18 km NW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  11. 3.7 15 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.0 38 km NNE of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.0 13 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.2 18 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.7 8 km SE of Esperanza, 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 4.2 on 2019-07-28 — it released about 4.7 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.