QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

18 km NNE of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico

· 32 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vega Baja Municipio 19 kmManatí Municipio 21 kmBarceloneta Municipio 22 kmVega Alta Municipio 23 kmDorado Municipio 24 kmToa Baja Municipio 31 kmFlorida Municipio 32 kmArecibo Municipio 33 kmMorovis Municipio 34 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
32 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vega Baja Municipio, 19 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2817 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 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 18.6221, -66.4268. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vega Baja Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) N of here earthquakes near Vega Baja Municipio
Manatí Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Manatí Municipio
Barceloneta Municipio, PR 22 km (14 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Barceloneta Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Toa Baja Municipio, PR 31 km (19 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

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

  1. 2.8 24 km N of Hatillo, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.6 1 km NNW of Jayuya, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.6 55 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 7 km NNE of Hatillo, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.5 57 km NNE of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.2 26 km N of Dorado, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 31 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.6 10 km N of Hatillo, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.6 37 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.7 2 km NW of Rafael Gonzalez, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.3 4 km NW of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.3 6 km NE of Villalba, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.9 24 km NNE of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.6 8 km NNW of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 9 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 89,000 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.