66 km E of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands

2026-10-03 16:03 UTC · 81 km deep · released about 1.2 tons of TNT

Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.

When: 2026-10-03 16:03 UTC
Magnitude: M 3.3 (md)
Depth: 81 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 2 hours ago · we first saw it 2 hours ago

A magnitude 3.3 earthquake was recorded 66 km E of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands at 16:03 UTC on 2026-10-03. 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 1.2 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 140,000× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 6,500× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,600× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.2 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.5× 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 5.4 on 2021-01-24 — about 1,600 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record since 1900 lists no earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km.

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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Aftershocks so far

No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 17:58 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.