QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.5ml

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

· 25 km deep · released about 2.7 kilotons of TNT

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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 5.5 (ml)
Depth
25 km below the surface
Felt
254 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Culebra Municipio, 123 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1120 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 254 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

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.

Where

Epicentre 18.9755, -64.3585. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Culebra Municipio, PR 123 km (77 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 147 km (92 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio

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
  2. 3.4 88 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  3. 4.0 124 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  4. 3.6 107 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  5. 3.5 Virgin Islands
  6. 3.7 102 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  7. 3.3 72 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  8. 3.6 61 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  9. 3.6 57 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  10. 3.8 63 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  11. 3.6 Virgin Islands
  12. 3.1 59 km ENE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  13. 3.8 63 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  14. 3.5 60 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  15. 3.4 86 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands

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.

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

On USGS

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