QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

12 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico

· 103 km deep · released about 650 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vega Baja Municipio 14 kmDorado Municipio 15 kmVega Alta Municipio 16 kmManatí Municipio 21 kmToa Baja Municipio 22 kmBarceloneta Municipio 24 kmToa Alta Municipio 26 kmCataño Municipio 26 kmMorovis Municipio 29 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
103 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vega Baja Municipio, 14 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2465 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 650 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 23,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× 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 650 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 18.5758, -66.3558. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vega Baja Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Vega Baja Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) N of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Manatí Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Manatí Municipio
Toa Baja Municipio, PR 22 km (13 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Toa Baja Municipio
Barceloneta Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Barceloneta Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 3 km N of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.8 14 km NNW of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.4 34 km N of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.8 5 km W of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.1 5 km N of Levittown, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.0 11 km N of Levittown, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 7 km NNE of Hatillo, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.4 27 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.6 3 km SE of Jayuya, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.9 45 km NNE of Carrizales, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.8 Puerto Rico region
  12. 1.8 47 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.2 8 km N of Levittown, Puerto Rico
  14. 1.8 4 km NNE of Orocovis, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.5 17 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 730 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.