QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

5 km SSW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico

· 11 km deep · released about 1.8 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Juana Díaz Municipio 6 kmPonce Municipio 11 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 14 kmVillalba Municipio 21 kmPeñuelas Municipio 23 kmCoamo Municipio 24 kmSalinas Municipio 28 kmJayuya Municipio 30 kmGuayanilla Municipio 30 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
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Juana Díaz Municipio, 6 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1393 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 1.8 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.

Where

Epicentre 17.9508, -66.5220. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 6 km (4 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) W of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Villalba Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Villalba Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 23 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Coamo Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Coamo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.8 6 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.4 4 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  3. 1.8 2 km W of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.1 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.7 1 km SSW of Gu?nica, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.8 1 km S of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.4 6 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.1 Puerto Rico region
  9. 1.9 2 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.1 3 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.6 6 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.3 2 km ESE of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.4 8 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  14. 1.9 2 km E of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 2 km SW of Fuig, 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 34,000 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.