21 km SSW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 8 km (5 mi) from the epicentre. 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 510 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 30,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 21,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.9× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 510 lb of TNT

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

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists one earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.1 22 km NNE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands · 44 km NNE of this epicentre Jul 8, 1970

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

Epicentre 17.5505, -64.8405. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.6 23 km NNW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 10:19 UTC
2. 3.2 40 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico 15:03 UTC
3. 3.2 54 km WSW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 20:05 UTC
4. 3.1 30 km SSE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:17 UTC
5. 3.1 18 km NW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:58 UTC
6. 3.1 7 km S of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 22:33 UTC
7. 2.8 41 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico 02:34 UTC
8. 2.7 22 km NNE of Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:09 UTC
9. 3.4 38 km SSW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 21:36 UTC
10. 3.1 36 km SSW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 20:51 UTC
11. 3.4 20 km SSW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:24 UTC
12. 3.1 22 km NNE of Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:05 UTC
13. 3.2 31 km NW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:55 UTC
14. 3.2 20 km NNW of Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands 03:12 UTC
15. 3.3 14 km SW of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 08:33 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 20:28 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.