QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

9 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico

· 8.0 km deep · released about 2.7 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Peñuelas Municipio 13 kmPonce Municipio 13 kmGuayanilla Municipio 15 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 23 kmGuánica Municipio 24 kmYauco Municipio 26 kmAdjuntas Municipio 30 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 33 kmSabana Grande Municipio 33 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
8.0 km below the surface
Felt
40 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Peñuelas Municipio, 13 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

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

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 40 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× 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 17.9153, -66.6943. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 23 km (15 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) E of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) SE 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 11 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.8 4 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.3 1 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 3 km E of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.5 14 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.0 Puerto Rico region
  7. 3.0 12 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.5 15 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.3 4 km WSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.2 9 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.2 10 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.0 8 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.7 9 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.2 4 km ESE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.1 7 km SSW 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 22,000 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.