QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5md

4 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico

· 13 km deep · released about 2.8 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Guánica Municipio 2 kmGuayanilla Municipio 14 kmLajas Municipio 14 kmSabana Grande Municipio 17 kmYauco Municipio 18 kmPeñuelas Municipio 22 kmSan Germán Municipio 23 kmMaricao Municipio 27 kmCabo Rojo 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 3.5 (md)
Depth
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Guánica Municipio, 2 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2178 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 2.8 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 61,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,700× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.8× 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 17.9350, -66.9113. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Guánica Municipio, PR 2 km (1 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Lajas Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 22 km (14 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Peñuelas 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 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.5 15 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.8 15 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 4 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.4 Puerto Rico region
  6. 2.6 2 km S of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 8 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.6 11 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.8 1 km WNW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.7 7 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.7 8 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.4 7 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.5 9 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 6 km SSE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.4 12 km SSE of Maria Antonia, 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.