QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

13 km SW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico

· 15 km deep · released about 12 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ponce Municipio 12 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 15 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 21 kmPeñuelas Municipio 22 kmGuayanilla Municipio 26 kmVillalba Municipio 28 kmCoamo Municipio 33 kmSalinas Municipio 34 kmJayuya Municipio 35 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
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Ponce Municipio, 12 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2550 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 12 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 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 870,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 78× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 12 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 17.8955, -66.5768. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ponce Municipio, PR 12 km (8 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 22 km (13 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Villalba Municipio, PR 28 km (18 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Villalba Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 12 km S of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.9 4 km E of Guayabal, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.3 12 km SW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.0 Puerto Rico region
  5. 1.9 3 km SE of Utuado, Puerto Rico
  6. 1.9 13 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  7. 1.7 1 km WSW of Río Cañas Abajo, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.6 10 km NW of Coto Laurel, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.2 13 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.6 11 km ESE of Maricao, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.9 15 km SSW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.0 8 km S of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.0 1 km SW of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 3 km ESE of Jauca, Puerto Rico
  15. 1.7 2 km E of Jauca, 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 19,000 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.