QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

3 km NNE of Río Cañas Abajo, Puerto Rico

· 5.0 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Villalba Municipio 7 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 9 kmCoamo Municipio 11 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 14 kmOrocovis Municipio 17 kmPonce Municipio 18 kmAibonito Municipio 21 kmBarranquitas Municipio 21 kmJayuya Municipio 21 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Villalba Municipio, 7 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2694 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 18.0660, -66.4528. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Villalba Municipio, PR 7 km (5 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Villalba Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 9 km (5 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Coamo Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Coamo Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Orocovis Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) S of here earthquakes near Orocovis Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 3 km W of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.5 6 km NNE of Lluveras, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.0 2 km WSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 12 km S of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.9 5 km N of Peñuelas, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.1 8 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 1.9 5 km SE of La Plena, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.6 Puerto Rico region
  9. 2.1 8 km NNE of Lluveras, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.0 5 km SW of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.9 6 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.4 5 km NE of Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.8 7 km NE of Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico
  14. 1.6 2 km NNW of Lluveras, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 9 km ESE of Maricao, 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 2019-03-12 — it released about 22,000 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.