QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.3ml

7 km SSW of Ponce, Puerto Rico

· 7.0 km deep · released about 43 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ponce Municipio 7 kmPeñuelas Municipio 11 kmGuayanilla Municipio 16 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 18 kmYauco Municipio 26 kmVillalba Municipio 28 kmAdjuntas Municipio 28 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 28 kmGuánica 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 4.3 (ml)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
90 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Ponce Municipio, 7 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2360 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 90 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 43 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 4,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 180× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.3 about 43 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 89× 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 17.9525, -66.6535. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ponce Municipio, PR 7 km (5 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
Villalba Municipio, PR 28 km (17 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Villalba 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 Puerto Rico region
  2. 1.6 13 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.9 9 km SSW of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.6 5 km SSE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.9 3 km SSE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.8 1 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 5 km SSW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.6 3 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.0 22 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.1 1 km ESE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.8 16 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.4 9 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.9 19 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 1 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.7 6 km SSE of La Parguera, 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 1,400 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.