QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.0Ml

24 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 5.0 km deep · released about 15 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 29 kmHumacao Municipio 30 kmYabucoa Municipio 31 kmMaunabo Municipio 32 kmNaguabo Municipio 35 kmCeiba Municipio 37 kmLas Piedras Municipio 40 kmPatillas Municipio 41 kmArroyo Municipio 46 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 4.0 (Ml)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
6 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 29 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3518 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 6 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 15 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 11,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.0 about 15 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 32× 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 17.9216, -65.6090. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 30 km (19 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 31 km (19 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Maunabo Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 35 km (22 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 37 km (23 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

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

  1. 2.1 31 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.6 19 km ESE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.5 27 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 17 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.0 15 km SE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.4 27 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.1 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.5 30 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.0 28 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.7 29 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.7 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  12. 1.9 27 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.2 28 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  14. 1.7 21 km ESE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  15. 1.8 6 km ESE of Comunas, 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 2.8 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.