QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1md

2 km W of La Playa, Puerto Rico

· 76 km deep · released about 1,600 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Rincón Municipio 7 kmAñasco Municipio 8 kmAguada Municipio 10 kmMoca Municipio 17 kmHormigueros Municipio 20 kmAguadilla Municipio 23 kmLas Marías Municipio 26 kmSan Sebastián Municipio 26 kmSan Germán 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 3.1 (md)
Depth
76 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Rincón Municipio, 7 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 983 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 1,600 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 6.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 9,400× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 6,700× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,600 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.7× 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 18.2878, -67.2107. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Rincón Municipio, PR 7 km (4 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Rincón Municipio
Añasco Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) W of here earthquakes near Añasco Municipio
Aguada Municipio, PR 10 km (6 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Aguada Municipio
Moca Municipio, PR 17 km (11 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Moca Municipio
Hormigueros Municipio, PR 20 km (12 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Hormigueros Municipio
Aguadilla Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Aguadilla Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 1 km W of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.8 4 km SSW of Palmarejo, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.4 6 km WSW of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.9 Puerto Rico region
  5. 1.9 4 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  6. 1.9 4 km SE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.1 7 km WSW of La Playa, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.0 1 km SW of Palmarejo, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.1 6 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.6 5 km SSW of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.1 Puerto Rico region
  12. 3.3 11 km W of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.9 5 km WSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  14. 3.6 Puerto Rico region
  15. 1.7 Mona Passage

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 5.3 on 2020-07-03 — it released about 1,700 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.