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

Yes. A magnitude 4.0 earthquake was recorded 150 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands at 20:10 UTC on 2024-09-15, 127 km deep.

2024-09-15 20:10 UTC · 127 km deep · released about 14 tons 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: 2024-09-15 20:10 UTC
Magnitude: M 4.0 (md)
Depth: 127 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 720 days ago · we first saw it 720 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 14 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 12,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 540× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 380× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 4.0 about 14 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 30× 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 since 2016 was M 5.0 on 2019-10-06 — about 30 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 2 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

6.2 131 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 26 km WSW of this epicentre Sep 6, 1919
5.0 127 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 31 km WSW of this epicentre Jan 13, 1993

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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Aftershocks so far

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

3.4 138 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 14:46 UTC
3.9 128 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 08:56 UTC
3.9 165 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:55 UTC
3.7 140 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 11:41 UTC
3.7 123 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 19:45 UTC
3.8 144 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 10:15 UTC
3.9 112 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:05 UTC
3.4 126 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:59 UTC
3.6 136 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:04 UTC
3.8 180 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:25 UTC
3.6 151 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 14:13 UTC
4.1 142 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:16 UTC
3.8 113 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:04 UTC
3.9 112 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:08 UTC
4.0 118 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 06:02 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 18:06 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.