12 km WSW of Salvaleón de Higüey, Dominican Republic

2023-02-16 06:44 UTC · 115 km deep · released about 9.6 tons of TNT

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: 2023-02-16 06:44 UTC
Magnitude: M 3.9 (md)
Depth: 115 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Nearest: Mayagüez Municipio, 111 km ESE
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 1254 days ago · we first saw it 1254 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 9.6 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 18,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 790× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 560× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 3.9 about 9.6 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 20× 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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 18.5573, -68.8106. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Place	Distance	Direction
Mayagüez Municipio, PR	111 km (69 mi)	WNW of here	earthquakes near Mayagüez Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

2.8 27 km N of Otra Banda, Dominican Republic 06:48 UTC
3.1 9 km ESE of Miches, Dominican Republic 13:00 UTC
3.8 22 km S of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic 14:17 UTC
2.9 21 km ESE of Miches, Dominican Republic 23:43 UTC
4.3 11 km SSE of Ramón Santana, Dominican Republic 07:05 UTC
4.0 Mona Passage 01:27 UTC
3.6 Mona Passage 06:46 UTC
4.0 9 km SSW of Salvaleón de Higüey, Dominican Republic 20:49 UTC
2.7 6 km NW of Otra Banda, Dominican Republic 15:27 UTC
4.0 17 km SSW of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic 07:01 UTC
4.1 11 km NW of San Rafael del Yuma, Dominican Republic 22:25 UTC
2.8 12 km NW of La Romana, Dominican Republic 07:00 UTC
3.9 14 km ENE of Guaymate, Dominican Republic 04:34 UTC
3.8 9 km SE of Ramón Santana, Dominican Republic 22:47 UTC
3.7 22 km SSE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic 04:20 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:23 UTC. 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 2022-10-01 — it released about 18 times the energy of this one.

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

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.