QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

Puerto Rico region

· 97 km deep · released about 7.3 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Toa Baja Municipio 3 kmDorado Municipio 4 kmCataño Municipio 8 kmToa Alta Municipio 12 kmVega Alta Municipio 13 kmBayamón Municipio 14 kmSan Juan Municipio 17 kmGuaynabo Municipio 18 kmVega Baja Municipio 19 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 3.8 (md)
Depth
97 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity II
Measured shaking
intensity II (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Toa Baja Municipio, 3 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1510 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 23,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 730× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 15× 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 18.4685, -66.2201. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Toa Baja Municipio, PR 3 km (2 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Toa Baja Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 4 km (3 mi) E of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Cataño Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Cataño Municipio
Toa Alta Municipio, PR 12 km (7 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Toa Alta Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Bayamón Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Bayamón Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 4 km ENE of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.1 32 km N of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.6 4 km E of Palmarejo, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 5 km SSE of Pájaros, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.8 7 km NNW of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.6 3 km NNW of Coamo, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 1 km WNW of Río Lajas, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.0 5 km N of Levittown, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.0 Puerto Rico region
  10. 2.8 20 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.7 5 km NW of Orocovis, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.1 1 km NNW of Campanilla, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.1 2 km NW of Cataño, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.8 30 km N of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.6 5 km ESE of Naranjito, 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 4.4 on 2018-12-09 — it released about 8.2 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.