QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5md

9 km SE of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico

· 12 km deep · released about 2.3 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lajas Municipio 11 kmCabo Rojo Municipio 11 kmGuánica Municipio 21 kmSan Germán Municipio 23 kmHormigueros Municipio 24 kmSabana Grande Municipio 26 kmYauco Municipio 33 kmMaricao Municipio 34 kmGuayanilla Municipio 35 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
12 km below the surface
Felt
19 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Lajas Municipio, 11 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1843 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 19 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.3 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 72,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,200× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,300× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.9× 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 17.9176, -67.1191. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lajas Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
Cabo Rojo Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Cabo Rojo Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) W of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Germán Municipio
Hormigueros Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) S of here earthquakes near Hormigueros Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande 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. 2.8 8 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.5 9 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.2 6 km SW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.0 7 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.6 6 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.2 6 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 5 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.3 1 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.2 5 km SW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.7 4 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.0 6 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.2 6 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.2 Puerto Rico region
  14. 2.8 6 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.1 2 km SW of La Parguera, 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 26,000 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.