QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

6 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 5.0 km deep · released about 630 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 11 kmCeiba Municipio 29 kmNaguabo Municipio 34 kmHumacao Municipio 35 kmCulebra Municipio 37 kmFajardo Municipio 41 kmYabucoa Municipio 41 kmLuquillo Municipio 45 kmMaunabo Municipio 45 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
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 11 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2973 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 630 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 24,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 17,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.5× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 630 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 18.0351, -65.4738. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 34 km (21 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 35 km (22 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Culebra Municipio, PR 37 km (23 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR 41 km (25 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Fajardo 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. 2.1 36 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.2 29 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  3. 1.8 11 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.1 23 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.8 9 km SSW of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.2 24 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.4 38 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.0 27 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.8 8 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.9 9 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.1 10 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.8 9 km SSW of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.8 9 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.1 29 km ESE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.6 5 km SE of Esperanza, 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 380 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.