QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2md

7 km SSW of Ponce, Puerto Rico

· 6.0 km deep · released about 1,800 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ponce Municipio 8 kmPeñuelas Municipio 12 kmGuayanilla Municipio 17 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 18 kmYauco Municipio 27 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 28 kmVillalba Municipio 28 kmAdjuntas Municipio 29 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 3.2 (md)
Depth
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Ponce Municipio, 8 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2336 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 1,800 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 190,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 8,500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,800 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.9× 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 17.9438, -66.6503. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ponce Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 12 km (8 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 17 km (11 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 27 km (17 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 28 km (17 mi) W of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel 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. 2.2 4 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.7 2 km SSE of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.7 4 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.6 6 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.0 11 km S of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.6 5 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 1 km W of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.0 6 km SSW of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.4 5 km SE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.0 Puerto Rico region
  11. 2.9 3 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.2 6 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.6 2 km WNW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  14. 1.7 5 km SE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.3 6 km S of Tallaboa, 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 68,000 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.