QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

2 km SE of La Playa, Puerto Rico

· 77 km deep · released about 1,200 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Añasco Municipio 5 kmRincón Municipio 11 kmAguada Municipio 12 kmMoca Municipio 16 kmHormigueros Municipio 16 kmLas Marías Municipio 21 kmSan Sebastián Municipio 23 kmSan Germán Municipio 23 kmAguadilla Municipio 24 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 3.1 (md)
Depth
77 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Añasco Municipio, 5 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1542 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 1,200 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 12,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 8,800× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,200 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.3× 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 18.2708, -67.1750. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Añasco Municipio, PR 5 km (3 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Añasco Municipio
Rincón Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Rincón Municipio
Aguada Municipio, PR 12 km (7 mi) S of here earthquakes near Aguada Municipio
Moca Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Moca Municipio
Hormigueros Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Hormigueros Municipio
Las Marías Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Las Marías Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 0 km NNE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.4 6 km WSW of Fuig, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.6 2 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.0 2 km NNE of Yauco, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.3 6 km WSW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.1 2 km ESE of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.0 6 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.9 2 km W of Indios, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.1 Puerto Rico region
  10. 1.8 5 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.1 4 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.7 1 km NE of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.0 Puerto Rico region
  14. 1.7 5 km SW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  15. 1.9 2 km E of Maria Antonia, 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 5.9 on 2020-01-11 — it released about 18,000 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.