QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.2md

2 km SW of Río Lajas, Puerto Rico

· 115 km deep · released about 26 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Toa Alta Municipio 5 kmVega Alta Municipio 8 kmCorozal Municipio 9 kmNaranjito Municipio 11 kmDorado Municipio 11 kmBayamón Municipio 13 kmToa Baja Municipio 13 kmVega Baja Municipio 14 kmMorovis Municipio 16 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 4.2 (md)
Depth
115 km below the surface
Felt
81 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Toa Alta Municipio, 5 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 95 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 81 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 26 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 6,500× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 290× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 200× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.2 about 26 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 55× 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 18.3803, -66.2871. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Toa Alta Municipio, PR 5 km (3 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Toa Alta Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Corozal Municipio, PR 9 km (6 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Corozal Municipio
Naranjito Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Naranjito Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Bayamón Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Bayamón Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 15 km N of San Juan, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.4 4 km NNE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.1 7 km WSW of Naranjito, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.1 5 km NNE of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.0 6 km S of G. L. Garcia, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.0 2 km ENE of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.0 6 km ENE of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.2 10 km NNE of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.4 4 km SSE of Utuado, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.1 4 km SSE of Utuado, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.4 5 km N of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.4 8 km NNE of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.9 2 km N of Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico
  14. 1.9 1 km SSW of Candelaria Arenas, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 0 km SSW of Santa Isabel, 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 2.3 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.