QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

43 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

· 87 km deep · released about 7.6 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mayagüez Municipio 96 kmRincón Municipio 115 kmAguadilla Municipio 117 kmAguada Municipio 119 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
87 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Mayagüez Municipio, 96 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1759 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 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 18.9015, -68.1663. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mayagüez Municipio, PR 96 km (59 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Mayagüez Municipio
Rincón Municipio, PR 115 km (71 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Rincón Municipio
Aguadilla Municipio, PR 117 km (73 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Aguadilla Municipio
Aguada Municipio, PR 119 km (74 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Aguada Municipio
Moca Municipio, PR 128 km (80 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Moca Municipio
Añasco Municipio, PR 129 km (80 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Añasco Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.3 13 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  2. 3.4 74 km NNE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  3. 3.6 9 km N of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  4. 3.4 38 km N of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  5. 3.3 71 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  6. 3.4 81 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  7. 3.6 40 km NNE of Otra Banda, Dominican Republic
  8. 3.5 Mona Passage
  9. 3.6 74 km NNE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  10. 3.6 21 km SE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  11. 3.3 33 km ENE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  12. 3.6 71 km NNE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  13. 3.8 57 km NNE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  14. 3.2 64 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  15. 3.4 74 km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

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 4.4 on 2020-06-08 — it released about 8.2 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.