QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

28 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico

· 16 km deep · released about 1,300 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vega Baja Municipio 30 kmBarceloneta Municipio 30 kmManatí Municipio 31 kmDorado Municipio 33 kmVega Alta Municipio 33 kmToa Baja Municipio 39 kmArecibo Municipio 40 kmFlorida Municipio 41 kmCataño Municipio 43 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 3.1 (md)
Depth
16 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vega Baja Municipio, 30 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3229 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 1,300 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× 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 18.7185, -66.4395. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vega Baja Municipio, PR 30 km (18 mi) N of here earthquakes near Vega Baja Municipio
Barceloneta Municipio, PR 30 km (19 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Barceloneta Municipio
Manatí Municipio, PR 31 km (19 mi) N of here earthquakes near Manatí Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 33 km (20 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 33 km (21 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Toa Baja Municipio, PR 39 km (24 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Toa Baja Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 70 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.9 2 km WNW of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.1 10 km N of Hatillo, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 8 km NNW of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.1 18 km NNW of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.2 40 km N of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 53 km NNW of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.8 68 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.0 77 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.2 73 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.3 33 km N of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.3 21 km NNW of Camuy, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.9 66 km NNE of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.2 41 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.5 48 km N of Carrizales, 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 4.8 on 2017-08-18 — 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.