QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9Md

26 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 2.0 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Yabucoa Municipio 30 kmMaunabo Municipio 31 kmHumacao Municipio 31 kmVieques Municipio 32 kmNaguabo Municipio 36 kmCeiba Municipio 39 kmPatillas Municipio 40 kmLas Piedras Municipio 41 kmArroyo Municipio 45 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 2.9 (Md)
Depth
2.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Yabucoa Municipio, 30 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3525 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 lb of TNT

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 17.9050, -65.6258. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 30 km (19 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Maunabo Municipio, PR 31 km (19 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 31 km (19 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 36 km (22 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 39 km (24 mi) S of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 15 km SE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.4 27 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.1 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.5 30 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.0 28 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  6. 1.7 29 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.7 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.9 27 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.2 28 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.7 21 km ESE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.8 6 km ESE of Comunas, Puerto Rico
  12. 1.5 2 km SE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.0 3 km NE of Benitez, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.4 Puerto Rico region
  15. 2.3 17 km SSE of Esperanza, 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 130 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.