145 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands

2016-01-15 19:29 UTC · 7.9 km deep · released about 120 tons of TNT

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: 2016-01-15 19:29 UTC
Magnitude: M 4.6 (mb)
Depth: 7.9 km below the surface
Felt: no reports yet
Tsunami: USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 3826 days ago · we first saw it 3826 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 120 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 1,400× the energy of this one
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63× the energy of this one
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 4.6 about 120 tons of TNT
Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 250× 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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 19.5937, -64.4258. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

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

2.6 144 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:19 UTC
2.6 101 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 13:07 UTC
3.1 102 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 01:41 UTC
2.2 107 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:06 UTC
3.2 118 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 17:13 UTC
3.7 130 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 10:21 UTC
2.8 122 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:02 UTC
2.9 153 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:53 UTC
3.6 123 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 14:03 UTC
3.3 112 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 07:46 UTC
3.7 128 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 05:36 UTC
3.4 123 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 15:18 UTC
3.0 123 km N of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 14:29 UTC
3.1 126 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands 13:05 UTC
3.2 105 km NNE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:13 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 13:26 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.