QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8Md

14 km E of Luis M. Cintron, Puerto Rico

· 122 km deep · released about 7.6 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Fajardo Municipio 13 kmCeiba Municipio 14 kmCulebra Municipio 20 kmVieques Municipio 22 kmLuquillo Municipio 23 kmNaguabo Municipio 27 kmRío Grande Municipio 33 kmHumacao Municipio 36 kmCanóvanas Municipio 41 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 3.8 (Md)
Depth
122 km below the surface
Felt
15 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Fajardo Municipio, 13 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3542 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 15 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 16× 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 18.3096, -65.4978. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Fajardo Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Culebra Municipio, PR 20 km (13 mi) W of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 22 km (13 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Luquillo Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Luquillo Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 27 km (17 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 27 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.0 27 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.1 26 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.7 27 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.8 24 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  6. 1.9 21 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 24 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.9 23 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.9 27 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.5 26 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.2 28 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.0 25 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.8 2 km N of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.9 23 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 1.6 11 km E of El Negro, Puerto Rico

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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.3 on 2016-09-02 — it released about 5.6 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

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