QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

7 km SSW of Ponce, Puerto Rico

· 7.0 km deep · released about 700 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ponce Municipio 8 kmPeñuelas Municipio 13 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 17 kmGuayanilla Municipio 18 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 27 kmVillalba Municipio 28 kmYauco Municipio 28 kmAdjuntas Municipio 29 kmGuánica Municipio 30 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Ponce Municipio, 8 km NNE
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 700 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 15,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 700 lb of TNT

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 17.9413, -66.6425. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ponce Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 27 km (17 mi) W of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Villalba Municipio, PR 28 km (17 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Villalba 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. 2.3 3 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.2 4 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.8 4 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.6 2 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.6 Puerto Rico region
  6. 2.0 2 km NW of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.4 8 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.4 6 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.3 6 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.9 5 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.2 6 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.8 9 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.4 9 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 6 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.6 4 km SSE of Magas Arriba, 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 170,000 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.