QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9Md

1 km E of La Plena, Puerto Rico

· 15 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Cayey Municipio 8 kmGuayama Municipio 10 kmSalinas Municipio 11 kmAibonito Municipio 12 kmCidra Municipio 14 kmArroyo Municipio 18 kmCoamo Municipio 18 kmComerío Municipio 20 kmBarranquitas Municipio 21 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
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Cayey Municipio, 8 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3455 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 18.0478, -66.1938. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Cayey Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Cayey Municipio
Guayama Municipio, PR 10 km (6 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Guayama Municipio
Salinas Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Salinas Municipio
Aibonito Municipio, PR 12 km (7 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Aibonito Municipio
Cidra Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Cidra Municipio
Arroyo Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Arroyo 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. 2.4 9 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.1 11 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.3 4 km WNW of Villalba, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 12 km ESE of Candelero Arriba, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.8 3 km S of Cayey, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.5 3 km SE of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.7 1 km S of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.0 3 km NW of Villalba, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.9 7 km WSW of Orocovis, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.8 14 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.6 1 km NW of Bayamón, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.6 20 km SSE of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.3 5 km N of Olimpo, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.3 23 km SSE of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.2 0 km W of Luis Llorens Torres, 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 4.6 on 2016-12-05 — it released about 350 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.