QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2md

53 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands

· 35 km deep · released about 1,700 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Culebra Municipio 54 kmFajardo Municipio 65 kmLuquillo Municipio 76 kmCeiba Municipio 78 kmVieques Municipio 79 kmRío Grande Municipio 83 kmNaguabo Municipio 89 kmLoíza Municipio 93 kmCanóvanas Municipio 94 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 3.2 (md)
Depth
35 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Culebra Municipio, 54 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 35 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 1,700 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 6.7 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 8,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,700 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.8× 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 18.7815, -65.1375. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Culebra Municipio, PR 54 km (33 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR 65 km (40 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Luquillo Municipio, PR 76 km (47 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Luquillo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 78 km (48 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 79 km (49 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Río Grande Municipio, PR 83 km (52 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Río Grande Municipio

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. 3.4 53 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  2. 2.9 73 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.0 58 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.5 59 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.5 65 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  6. 2.9 55 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  7. 3.0 56 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  8. 3.0 38 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  9. 3.3 54 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  10. 3.0 40 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  11. 3.0 48 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  12. 2.8 67 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands
  13. 3.4 82 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  14. 3.1 40 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  15. 3.5 46 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.9 on 2024-04-28 — it released about 390 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.