QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.5ml

Puerto Rico region

· 9.0 km deep · released about 85 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Guánica Municipio 3 kmLajas Municipio 10 kmSabana Grande Municipio 14 kmGuayanilla Municipio 17 kmYauco Municipio 17 kmSan Germán Municipio 19 kmMaricao Municipio 24 kmPeñuelas Municipio 24 kmCabo Rojo Municipio 25 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 4.5 (ml)
Depth
9.0 km below the surface
Felt
170 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Guánica Municipio, 3 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2227 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 170 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 85 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 89× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.5 about 85 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 180× 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 17.9601, -66.9471. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Guánica Municipio, PR 3 km (2 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Lajas Municipio, PR 10 km (6 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) S of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 17 km (10 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 17 km (10 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Germán 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. 2.4 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.0 4 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.4 9 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.8 5 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.9 3 km SSE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.5 3 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 Puerto Rico region
  8. 2.7 16 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.7 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.8 16 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.3 5 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.2 4 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.4 5 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.7 6 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.9 5 km SW 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 710 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.