QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

23 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 19 km deep · released about 2 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 26 kmCeiba Municipio 46 kmCulebra Municipio 48 kmHumacao Municipio 49 kmNaguabo Municipio 50 kmYabucoa Municipio 53 kmMaunabo Municipio 55 kmFajardo Municipio 58 kmLas Piedras Municipio 60 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
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 26 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1844 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 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 83,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,700× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 2 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.3× 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 17.8983, -65.3910. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) S of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 46 km (29 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Culebra Municipio, PR 48 km (30 mi) S of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 49 km (31 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 50 km (31 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 53 km (33 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.5 18 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.3 36 km SSW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  3. 2.9 33 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.3 10 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.6 5 km E of Candelero Arriba, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.1 9 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 25 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.0 28 km SE of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.7 4 km E of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.1 5 km ESE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.6 36 km SSW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  12. 2.5 35 km SSW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  13. 2.9 18 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.3 Virgin Islands
  15. 2.9 13 km SE 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 4.3 on 2016-09-02 — it released about 21 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.