Earthquake near La Parguera, PR

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 55 km (34 mi) from the epicentre. In La Parguera, 5 km away, the estimate is intensity III (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: San Germán 13 km, intensity III · Yauco 17 km, intensity III · Pole Ojea 20 km, intensity III · Guayanilla 22 km, intensity II · Puerto Real 23 km, intensity II · Magas Arriba 24 km, intensity II · Tallaboa 30 km, intensity II · Mayagüez 30 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.8 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 95,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,300× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3,000× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.8 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 3.7× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 6.4 on 2020-01-07 — about 34,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.8 4 km E of Moca, Puerto Rico · 48 km N of this epicentre May 16, 2010
2. 5.2 19 km SW of Stella, Puerto Rico · 46 km WNW of this epicentre Dec 17, 2011
3. 5.1 21 km SW of Stella, Puerto Rico · 46 km WNW of this epicentre Dec 17, 2011

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 17.9716, -66.9955. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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. 2.7 6 km W of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico 00:05 UTC
2. 2.7 Puerto Rico region 23:14 UTC
3. 3.2 4 km WSW of Fuig, Puerto Rico 22:18 UTC
4. 3.3 12 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico 21:03 UTC
5. 2.4 6 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico 04:04 UTC
6. 2.6 6 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico 20:53 UTC
7. 2.3 5 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico 13:18 UTC
8. 2.8 3 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico 04:08 UTC
9. 3.1 9 km S of Lares, Puerto Rico 16:48 UTC
10. 3.2 8 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico 06:48 UTC
11. 3.3 7 km ESE of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico 04:10 UTC
12. 1.8 7 km ESE of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico 03:04 UTC
13. 2.2 6 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico 18:35 UTC
14. 2.8 1 km ENE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico 10:50 UTC
15. 2.6 2 km NW of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico 06:10 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 21:48 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.