QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3md

21 km ESE of El Negro, Puerto Rico

· 16 km deep · released about 85 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Yabucoa Municipio 24 kmMaunabo Municipio 24 kmHumacao Municipio 25 kmNaguabo Municipio 31 kmPatillas Municipio 33 kmVieques Municipio 34 kmLas Piedras Municipio 35 kmCeiba Municipio 36 kmArroyo Municipio 39 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 2.3 (md)
Depth
16 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Yabucoa Municipio, 24 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3354 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 85 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 11× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 85 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 17.9338, -65.6780. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Maunabo Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 25 km (16 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 31 km (20 mi) S of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Patillas Municipio, PR 33 km (21 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Patillas Municipio
Vieques Municipio, PR 34 km (21 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.1 4 km SSE of Palo Seco, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.3 9 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.8 18 km SSE of Arroyo, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.6 20 km S of Arroyo, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.5 21 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.6 9 km SSE of Aguas Claras, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.1 12 km SE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.7 2 km NW of Candelero Arriba, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.6 16 km SSE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.5 5 km E of Bayamon, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.1 2 km ENE of Candelero Arriba, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.3 3 km NNW of Patillas, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.0 26 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.6 2 km NNW of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.8 1 km NNE of Yabucoa, 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 2,800 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.