QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8Md

3 km S of Cayey, Puerto Rico

· 17 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Cayey Municipio 3 kmCidra Municipio 11 kmGuayama Municipio 12 kmAibonito Municipio 12 kmSalinas Municipio 16 kmComerío Municipio 17 kmArroyo Municipio 17 kmCaguas Municipio 19 kmAguas Buenas Municipio 20 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 1.8 (Md)
Depth
17 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Cayey Municipio, 3 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3476 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 18.0792, -66.1617. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Cayey Municipio, PR 3 km (2 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Cayey Municipio
Cidra Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) S of here earthquakes near Cidra Municipio
Guayama Municipio, PR 12 km (7 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Guayama Municipio
Aibonito Municipio, PR 12 km (8 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Aibonito Municipio
Salinas Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Salinas Municipio
Comerío Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Comerío Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 4 km W of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.0 1 km WSW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  3. 1.9 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.7 3 km SE of Pájaros, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.8 4 km SE of G. L. Garcia, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.3 12 km S of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 16 km SSE of Jauca, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.1 1 km ESE of Playita, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.8 3 km NNW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.9 8 km ENE of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.1 1 km SE of Ceiba, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.4 3 km S of Playita Cortada, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.7 3 km WNW of Candelero Arriba, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.2 11 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  15. 1.9 0 km NNE of Ponce, 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 16,000 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.