97 km NE of Cruz Bay, 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 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 2,000 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 170,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,700× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,400× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 2,000 lb of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.1× 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 5.7 on 2023-12-09 — about 5,400 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 7 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.9 68 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 47 km WSW of this epicentre Jun 25, 1930
2. 5.9 65 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 37 km WSW of this epicentre Jun 26, 1985
3. 5.7 80 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 32 km W of this epicentre Aug 2, 1927
4. 5.3 78 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 38 km W of this epicentre Aug 14, 2006
5. 5.3 97 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 42 km WNW of this epicentre Dec 19, 2007

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 19.0647, -64.2782. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.3 66 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 10:04 UTC
2. 3.0 73 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 11:02 UTC
3. 3.5 67 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:30 UTC
4. 4.0 127 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:28 UTC
5. 3.4 71 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:41 UTC
6. 3.8 71 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:31 UTC
7. 3.4 89 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 23:57 UTC
8. 3.8 67 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 19:56 UTC
9. 3.4 81 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 15:18 UTC
10. 3.4 91 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:48 UTC
11. 3.1 69 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 21:26 UTC
12. 3.5 137 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 12:44 UTC
13. 3.9 133 km NE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 11:14 UTC
14. 3.2 89 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 21:55 UTC
15. 3.4 89 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 16:15 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:10 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.