50 km ENE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

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

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 21 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 7,900× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 4.1 about 21 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 45× 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 (31 mi) since our catalogue begins in 2016. No other earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded this close in that time.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 2 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.1 22 km NNE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands · 32 km W of this epicentre Jul 8, 1970
2. 5.0 29 km S of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands · 46 km WNW of this epicentre Jan 9, 1990

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 17.9505, -64.3365. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 3.6 67 km ESE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 00:12 UTC
2. 3.5 54 km ENE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 16:26 UTC
3. 3.9 49 km ESE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 22:27 UTC
4. 3.5 46 km E of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 11:46 UTC
5. 3.9 52 km NE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 09:06 UTC
6. 3.6 55 km ESE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:55 UTC
7. 3.7 62 km E of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 00:04 UTC
8. 3.7 75 km E of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 19:57 UTC
9. 3.9 57 km E of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:37 UTC
10. 5.3 67 km ESE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 18:24 UTC
11. 4.0 60 km ESE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 04:34 UTC
12. 3.6 32 km S of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 03:24 UTC
13. 3.4 53 km ESE of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 00:18 UTC
14. 3.1 50 km ESE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:49 UTC
15. 3.4 31 km SE of Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands 02:03 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 05:00 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.