QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8md

121 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico

· 60 km deep · released about 8.4 tons of TNT

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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
60 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Fajardo Municipio, 120 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 486 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 8.4 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 20,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 640× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 8.4 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 18× 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 19.4623, -65.4620. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Fajardo Municipio, PR 120 km (75 mi) N of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Loíza Municipio, PR 124 km (77 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Loíza Municipio
Carolina Municipio, PR 130 km (81 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Carolina Municipio
San Juan Municipio, PR 132 km (82 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near San Juan Municipio
Cataño Municipio, PR 134 km (83 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Cataño Municipio
Toa Baja Municipio, PR 136 km (84 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Toa Baja Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.2 98 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.7 92 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.7 132 km NNE of Vieques, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.3 82 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.7 88 km NNE of Luquillo, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.4 85 km NNE of Luquillo, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.8 107 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.7 86 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.4 122 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  10. 3.4 102 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  11. 3.6 126 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  12. 3.4 84 km N of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  13. 4.0 105 km N of Suárez, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.5 96 km N of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  15. 3.8 104 km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands

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 4.9 on 2018-11-14 — it released about 40 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.