QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

4 km SSE of Palo Seco, Puerto Rico

· 3.0 km deep · released about 1,200 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Maunabo Municipio 5 kmPatillas Municipio 7 kmArroyo Municipio 12 kmYabucoa Municipio 12 kmSan Lorenzo Municipio 20 kmGuayama Municipio 22 kmHumacao Municipio 24 kmLas Piedras Municipio 25 kmCayey Municipio 28 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
3.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Maunabo Municipio, 5 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3168 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 1,200 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 6.7 290,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 13,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 9,100× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,200 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.2× 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 17.9711, -65.9291. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Maunabo Municipio, PR 5 km (3 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Patillas Municipio, PR 7 km (4 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Patillas Municipio
Arroyo Municipio, PR 12 km (7 mi) E of here earthquakes near Arroyo Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 12 km (8 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
San Lorenzo Municipio, PR 20 km (13 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Lorenzo Municipio
Guayama Municipio, PR 22 km (14 mi) E of here earthquakes near Guayama 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. 2.2 2 km E of Arroyo, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.2 5 km SSW of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.1 4 km ESE of Arroyo, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.8 2 km S of Palmas, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.6 4 km SSE of Palmas, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.0 4 km S of Palmas, Puerto Rico
  7. 1.5 5 km SSW of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.9 1 km NNE of Buena Vista, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.0 0 km S of Palmas, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.7 5 km SSW of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.3 5 km SSW of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.0 1 km NNE of Buena Vista, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.3 5 km SSW of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.1 5 km SSW of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.2 6 km SSW of Lamboglia, 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 200 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.