QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

3 km SE of Jauca, Puerto Rico

· 7.0 km deep · released about 7.3 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Isabel Municipio 5 kmSalinas Municipio 8 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 17 kmCoamo Municipio 18 kmGuayama Municipio 21 kmAibonito Municipio 22 kmVillalba Municipio 25 kmCayey Municipio 26 kmBarranquitas Municipio 28 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 3.8 (md)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
205 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Santa Isabel Municipio, 5 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2450 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 205 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 23,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 730× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 15× more

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 17.9461, -66.3368. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 5 km (3 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Salinas Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Salinas Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Coamo Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) S of here earthquakes near Coamo Municipio
Guayama Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) W of here earthquakes near Guayama Municipio
Aibonito Municipio, PR 22 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Aibonito Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 1 km WNW of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.5 1 km E of Jauca, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.0 2 km SE of Palmarejo, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.5 8 km S of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.9 11 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  6. 1.5 3 km S of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.3 13 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.1 1 km SSW of Río Cañas Abajo, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.8 4 km SE of Jauca, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.7 1 km NE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.0 4 km SSW of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.8 2 km SSW of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.6 Puerto Rico region
  14. 2.7 2 km SW of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  15. 1.8 3 km SSW of Las Ochenta, 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 16 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.