QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

8 km S of Palo Seco, Puerto Rico

· 14 km deep · released about 14 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Maunabo Municipio 8 kmPatillas Municipio 10 kmArroyo Municipio 13 kmYabucoa Municipio 16 kmGuayama Municipio 23 kmSan Lorenzo Municipio 24 kmHumacao Municipio 27 kmLas Piedras Municipio 29 kmCayey Municipio 31 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Maunabo Municipio, 8 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1983 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 14 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 790,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 70× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 14 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 17.9338, -65.9246. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Maunabo Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Patillas Municipio, PR 10 km (6 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Patillas Municipio
Arroyo Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Arroyo Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Guayama Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) E of here earthquakes near Guayama Municipio
San Lorenzo Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near San Lorenzo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 23 km S of Arroyo, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.6 0 km W of Canovanas, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.5 10 km S of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.6 2 km SSE of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.3 18 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.1 12 km S of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 10 km S of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.5 3 km NE of Las Ochenta, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.1 24 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.6 21 km ESE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.5 2 km SSW of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.1 3 km ESE of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.4 4 km ESE of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.4 3 km ESE of Salinas, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.3 1 km SW of Cayey, 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 18,000 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.