QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

6 km NW of San Rafael del Yuma, Dominican Republic

· 158 km deep · released about 8.7 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mayagüez Municipio 98 km
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 3.8 (md)
Depth
158 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Mayagüez Municipio, 98 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 486 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 8.7 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 5.8 870× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 8.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 18× 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 18.4761, -68.7175. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mayagüez Municipio, PR 98 km (61 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

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

  1. 4.4 8 km SE of Ramón Santana, Dominican Republic
  2. 3.9 25 km SW of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
  3. 3.6 24 km S of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
  4. 3.9 22 km SW of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
  5. 3.4 34 km SSE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
  6. 3.9 12 km WSW of Salvaleón de Higüey, Dominican Republic
  7. 4.2 13 km W of San Rafael del Yuma, Dominican Republic
  8. 3.4 9 km SSW of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  9. 3.7 24 km S of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
  10. 3.4 9 km S of Ramón Santana, Dominican Republic
  11. 3.7 11 km W of Salvaleón de Higüey, Dominican Republic
  12. 3.7 24 km SE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican Republic
  13. 4.0 15 km WNW of San Rafael del Yuma, Dominican Republic
  14. 3.8 20 km SSE of La Romana, Dominican Republic
  15. 3.6 19 km N of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

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 5.3 on 2019-02-04 — it released about 150 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.