QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.1mwr

3 km NNE of Little Creek, Delaware

· 9.9 km deep · released about 21 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Kent County 13 kmCumberland County 30 kmSalem County 42 kmNew Castle County 46 kmCaroline County 50 kmCape May County 52 kmQueen Anne's County 59 kmSussex County 59 kmCecil County 60 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 4.1 (mwr)
Depth
9.9 km below the surface
Felt
14574 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Kent County, 13 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 45 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 14574 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

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.

Where

Epicentre 39.1977, -75.4325. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Kent County, DE 13 km (8 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Kent County
Cumberland County, NJ 30 km (19 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Cumberland County
Salem County, NJ 42 km (26 mi) S of here earthquakes near Salem County
New Castle County, DE 46 km (28 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near New Castle County
Caroline County, MD 50 km (31 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Caroline County
Cape May County, NJ 52 km (32 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Cape May County

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

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.3 3 km SW of Port Norris, New Jersey

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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.