QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

5 km ESE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico

· 18 km deep · released about 1,300 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Naguabo Municipio 8 kmHumacao Municipio 9 kmCeiba Municipio 14 kmLas Piedras Municipio 19 kmYabucoa Municipio 20 kmJuncos Municipio 24 kmLuquillo Municipio 25 kmMaunabo Municipio 27 kmRío Grande Municipio 28 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
18 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Naguabo Municipio, 8 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1498 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 1,300 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 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× 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 18.1465, -65.6985. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Naguabo Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 9 km (6 mi) E of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Las Piedras Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Las Piedras Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 20 km (12 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Juncos Municipio, PR 24 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Juncos Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 Puerto Rico region
  2. 1.9 9 km SSW of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.1 Puerto Rico region
  4. 3.3 16 km NW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.3 15 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.8 16 km S of Lamboglia, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 12 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.8 Puerto Rico region
  9. 2.9 Puerto Rico region
  10. 2.4 5 km ESE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.8 28 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.2 24 km SW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.3 3 km SE of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 6 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 16 km S of Esperanza, 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 350 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.