QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8ml

9 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico

· 6.0 km deep · released about 7.6 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Peñuelas Municipio 13 kmPonce Municipio 14 kmGuayanilla Municipio 15 kmGuánica Municipio 24 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 24 kmYauco Municipio 26 kmAdjuntas Municipio 31 kmSabana Grande Municipio 33 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 34 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 (ml)
Depth
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
82 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Peñuelas Municipio, 13 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2353 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 82 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 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 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 16× 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 17.9095, -66.7010. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) E of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz 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. 2.7 1 km NE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.3 5 km S of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.9 9 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.9 6 km SW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.8 4 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.5 3 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 10 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.5 10 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.4 Puerto Rico region
  10. 2.2 5 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.4 3 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.4 3 km SSW of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.9 6 km SW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.1 22 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.4 7 km SSW of Indios, 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 7,900 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.