QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.6Ml

9 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico

· 4.0 km deep · released about 120 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Maunabo Municipio 9 kmPatillas Municipio 14 kmYabucoa Municipio 16 kmArroyo Municipio 18 kmHumacao Municipio 26 kmSan Lorenzo Municipio 27 kmGuayama Municipio 28 kmLas Piedras Municipio 30 kmJuncos Municipio 34 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 4.6 (Ml)
Depth
4.0 km below the surface
Felt
341 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Tsunami
USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
Nearest
Maunabo Municipio, 9 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3495 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 341 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 120 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.6 about 120 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 250× 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 17.9190, -65.8795. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Maunabo Municipio, PR 9 km (6 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Patillas Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Patillas Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) S of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Arroyo Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Arroyo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
San Lorenzo Municipio, PR 27 km (17 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Lorenzo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 1 km WSW of Bairoa, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.5 30 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.0 38 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.6 Puerto Rico region
  5. 2.6 11 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.6 28 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 29 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.0 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.9 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.5 31 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.5 11 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.6 9 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.9 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.1 12 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.5 27 km SW 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.

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

On USGS

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