QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.2mwp

Puerto Rico region

· 5.0 km deep · released about 950 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lajas Municipio 7 kmGuánica Municipio 11 kmCabo Rojo Municipio 20 kmSabana Grande Municipio 20 kmSan Germán Municipio 21 kmGuayanilla Municipio 25 kmYauco Municipio 25 kmHormigueros Municipio 27 kmMaricao Municipio 30 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 5.2 (mwp)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
459 reports · strongest reported intensity VI
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Lajas Municipio, 7 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 279 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 459 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 950 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7.9× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.2 about 950 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2,000× 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 17.9155, -67.0171. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lajas Municipio, PR 7 km (5 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Cabo Rojo Municipio, PR 20 km (12 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Cabo Rojo Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 20 km (13 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) S of here earthquakes near San Germán Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 25 km (16 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 7 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.8 2 km E of Indios, Puerto Rico
  3. 1.5 2 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.5 6 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.6 9 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.6 0 km W of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.1 14 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.7 16 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.8 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.7 7 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.7 5 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.3 1 km N of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.5 5 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 11 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.4 5 km S of Guánica, 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 6.4 on 2020-01-07 — it released about 63 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.