QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3md

16 km S of Ponce, Puerto Rico

· 11 km deep · released about 72 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ponce Municipio 16 kmPeñuelas Municipio 20 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 22 kmGuayanilla Municipio 23 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 29 kmGuánica Municipio 31 kmYauco Municipio 34 kmVillalba Municipio 35 kmAdjuntas Municipio 37 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 2.3 (md)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Ponce Municipio, 16 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2051 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 72 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 150,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 13× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 72 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 17.8633, -66.6441. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ponce Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 20 km (13 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 22 km (14 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 31 km (19 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 0 km E of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.3 4 km W of Fuig, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.8 8 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 6 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.4 2 km S of Jauca, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.1 6 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.1 4 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.4 1 km NE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.0 7 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.9 3 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.2 3 km SSW of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.3 5 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.1 17 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.2 3 km ESE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.5 4 km SE 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 1,700,000 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.