QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

7 km ESE of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico

· 10 km deep · released about 1,400 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Cabo Rojo Municipio 8 kmLajas Municipio 9 kmSan Germán Municipio 19 kmHormigueros Municipio 20 kmGuánica Municipio 21 kmSabana Grande Municipio 23 kmMaricao Municipio 31 kmYauco Municipio 31 kmLas Marías Municipio 34 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 3.1 (md)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Cabo Rojo Municipio, 8 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1759 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 1,400 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 240,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,400 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.5× 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 17.9526, -67.1200. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Cabo Rojo Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Cabo Rojo Municipio
Lajas Municipio, PR 9 km (6 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Germán Municipio
Hormigueros Municipio, PR 20 km (13 mi) S of here earthquakes near Hormigueros Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) W of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 23 km (15 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

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

  1. 2.8 8 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.0 8 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 1.8 1 km S of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.5 9 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.3 2 km E of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.6 Puerto Rico region
  7. 2.4 9 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.0 7 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.9 10 km SSE of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.5 11 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.7 0 km NE of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  12. 1.9 3 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.3 3 km NNW of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.8 22 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.7 4 km SW of Guánica, 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 86,000 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.