QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.9md

138 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands

· 83 km deep · released about 9 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N
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 3.9 (md)
Depth
83 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1018 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 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 19,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 840× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 19× 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 19.5838, -64.7780. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.6 116 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  2. 3.2 98 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  3. 3.4 117 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  4. 3.1 104 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  5. 3.8 112 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  6. 4.4 93 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  7. 3.8 105 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  8. 3.0 94 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  9. 4.0 172 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  10. 3.9 152 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  11. 3.8 104 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  12. 3.9 101 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  13. 3.9 114 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  14. 4.0 152 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  15. 4.0 154 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 5.0 on 2021-02-06 — it released about 51 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.