QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

14 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 19 km deep · released about 2.2 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 19 kmCeiba Municipio 35 kmHumacao Municipio 36 kmNaguabo Municipio 37 kmYabucoa Municipio 40 kmMaunabo Municipio 43 kmCulebra Municipio 45 kmLas Piedras Municipio 47 kmFajardo Municipio 48 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 3.4 (md)
Depth
19 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity II (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 19 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2037 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 2.2 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 78,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 2.2 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.6× 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 17.9666, -65.4926. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 35 km (22 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 36 km (23 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 37 km (23 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 40 km (25 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Maunabo Municipio, PR 43 km (27 mi) E of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.3 4 km SSW of Las Piedras, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.4 23 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.1 25 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.2 1 km ESE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.5 13 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  6. 4.8 13 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.1 2 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.7 23 km ESE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.8 11 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.2 27 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.0 29 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.5 36 km W of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
  13. 3.0 19 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.4 23 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.0 11 km W of Esperanza, 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 4.6 on 2016-12-05 — it released about 55 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.