The Maui News

A 3.7 magnitude earthquake just north of Haliimaile late Friday night was likely caused by the bending and cracking of an oceanic plate, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Jefferson Chang, a geophysicist with USGS who’s based at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said Tuesday evening that while scientists can’t prove the precise cause, an earthquake that deep is likely due to a phenomenon known as lithospheric bending.

Chang explained that the weight of the island chain is bending the Pacific Plate, and when the plate creaks or snaps, that causes a quake.

“Let’s say you take a pencil, and you take the ends and try to bend it,” he said. “When it finally snaps, that’s the earthquake. The Pacific Plate can’t take the bending any longer and it releases that energy.”

The earthquake reverberated 19.5 miles deep in a location about 1.2 miles north of Haliimaile at 9:43 p.m. Friday, according to the USGS.

A total of 451 people responded to the USGS “Did You Feel It” feature, with responses ranging from Hana to Lahaina as well as to Molokai, Hawaii island and Oahu.

Chang said that the USGS did not sense any aftershocks and that there was no evidence of volcanic magma moving around “like what we see with Kilauea.”

“From Maui on up north of the chain, it’s going to be that sort of plate-bending type of thing,” Chang said.