QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

2 km SW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico

· 5.0 km deep · released about 1,500 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Juana Díaz Municipio 3 kmPonce Municipio 10 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 13 kmVillalba Municipio 18 kmCoamo Municipio 21 kmPeñuelas Municipio 24 kmSalinas Municipio 26 kmJayuya Municipio 27 kmOrocovis Municipio 28 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 3.1 (md)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Juana Díaz Municipio, 3 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2244 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 1,500 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 220,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,500 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.6× 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 17.9770, -66.5110. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 3 km (2 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 10 km (7 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Villalba Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Villalba Municipio
Coamo Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Coamo Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

50 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.3 3 km ESE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.7 3 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.7 2 km NNE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.7 9 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.7 5 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.6 3 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.2 3 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.4 1 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.3 6 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.9 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.0 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.5 3 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.0 4 km WSW of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 0 km NNE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.7 0 km S 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 78,000 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.