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

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 260 km (162 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 2.7 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2.8× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 5.5 about 2.7 kilotons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5,600× 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 (31 mi) since our catalogue begins in 2016. The previous largest was M 4.7 on 2018-04-06.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 8 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.9 68 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 36 km W of this epicentre Jun 25, 1930
2. 5.9 65 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 25 km WSW of this epicentre Jun 26, 1985
3. 5.7 80 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 23 km WNW of this epicentre Aug 2, 1927
4. 5.3 78 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 30 km W of this epicentre Aug 14, 2006
5. 5.3 97 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 39 km NW of this epicentre Dec 19, 2007

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 18.9755, -64.3585. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.6 Virgin Islands 01:48 UTC
2. 3.4 88 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 01:33 UTC
3. 4.0 124 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:21 UTC
4. 3.6 107 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:08 UTC
5. 3.5 Virgin Islands 07:23 UTC
6. 3.7 102 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 21:51 UTC
7. 3.3 72 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:47 UTC
8. 3.6 61 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:14 UTC
9. 3.6 57 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:34 UTC
10. 3.8 63 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 03:07 UTC
11. 3.6 Virgin Islands 06:43 UTC
12. 3.1 59 km ENE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 23:24 UTC
13. 3.8 63 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 10:15 UTC
14. 3.5 60 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 22:14 UTC
15. 3.4 86 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:42 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 14:23 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.