QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

8 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico

· 4.0 km deep · released about 650 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Guánica Municipio 7 kmLajas Municipio 8 kmSabana Grande Municipio 17 kmSan Germán Municipio 20 kmGuayanilla Municipio 21 kmYauco Municipio 22 kmCabo Rojo Municipio 22 kmHormigueros Municipio 27 kmMaricao Municipio 27 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
4.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Guánica Municipio, 7 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2363 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 17.9320, -66.9820. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Guánica Municipio, PR 7 km (4 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Lajas Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 20 km (13 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Germán Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 22 km (13 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Yauco 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. 2.5 5 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.6 4 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.3 8 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.8 16 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.1 8 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.2 5 km ESE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 5 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.2 1 km SW of Peñuelas, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.5 5 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.5 7 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.6 18 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.5 6 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.6 2 km SSE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.9 15 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.9 2 km S of Magas Arriba, 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 180,000 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.