QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

3 km NW of La Parguera, Puerto Rico

· 6.0 km deep · released about 16 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lajas Municipio 4 kmCabo Rojo Municipio 11 kmSan Germán Municipio 13 kmHormigueros Municipio 16 kmSabana Grande Municipio 16 kmGuánica Municipio 17 kmMaricao Municipio 24 kmYauco Municipio 25 kmLas Marías Municipio 27 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lajas Municipio, 4 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1488 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 16 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 930,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 660,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 59× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 lb of TNT

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 17.9980, -67.0730. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lajas Municipio, PR 4 km (3 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
Cabo Rojo Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) E of here earthquakes near Cabo Rojo Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near San Germán Municipio
Hormigueros Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Hormigueros Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 16 km (10 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 17 km (10 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 4 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.7 11 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.3 4 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.9 3 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.2 6 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.0 0 km WNW of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.0 1 km N of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.0 6 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.2 0 km WNW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.7 Puerto Rico region
  11. 2.0 4 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.1 3 km SSW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.3 Puerto Rico region
  14. 2.5 6 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.1 10 km SSW of Jayuya, 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 6.4 on 2020-01-07 — it released about 7,400,000 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.