QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2md

18 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 7.2 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 19 kmCulebra Municipio 39 kmCeiba Municipio 42 kmNaguabo Municipio 48 kmHumacao Municipio 49 kmFajardo Municipio 52 kmYabucoa Municipio 55 kmMaunabo Municipio 58 kmLuquillo Municipio 58 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 3.2 (md)
Depth
7.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 19 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1644 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 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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 17.9743, -65.3523. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Culebra Municipio, PR 39 km (25 mi) S of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 42 km (26 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 49 km (31 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR 52 km (32 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 11 km WNW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.8 Puerto Rico region
  3. 3.0 18 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 11 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.5 Puerto Rico region
  6. 2.7 16 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.7 19 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.5 Puerto Rico region
  9. 2.3 Puerto Rico region
  10. 2.5 29 km SSW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  11. 3.3 16 km NW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.3 15 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.5 12 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.9 Puerto Rico region
  15. 2.4 5 km ESE of Punta Santiago, 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 4.8 on 2021-10-08 — it released about 250 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.