QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

138 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico

Yes. A magnitude 3.4 earthquake was recorded 138 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico, at 10:56 pm AST on 17 November 2024 (02:56 UTC), 73 km deep.

· 73 km deep · released about 1.7 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
Magnitude
M 3.4 (md)
Depth
73 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 723 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 1.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 3.5× 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 4.9 on 2018-11-14 — about 200 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

  1. 5.1 122 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico · 20 km SSE of this epicentre
  2. 5.0 122 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands · 48 km ESE of this epicentre
  3. 5.0 109 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands · 46 km SE of this epicentre

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 19.5890, -65.3583. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.6 125 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  2. 4.3 144 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  3. 4.0 139 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  4. 4.0 136 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  5. 4.0 170 km NNE of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.4 112 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.4 151 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.8 134 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.6 165 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.8 162 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.4 105 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.4 128 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  13. 3.4 140 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.9 124 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.9 113 km N of Charlotte Amalie, 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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.