QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

29 km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 6.1 km deep · released about 2 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 34 kmMaunabo Municipio 35 kmYabucoa Municipio 35 kmHumacao Municipio 36 kmNaguabo Municipio 42 kmCeiba Municipio 44 kmPatillas Municipio 44 kmLas Piedras Municipio 46 kmArroyo Municipio 48 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 3.4 (md)
Depth
6.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 34 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 862 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 2 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 83,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,700× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 2 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.3× 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 17.8608, -65.5990. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 34 km (21 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Maunabo Municipio, PR 35 km (22 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Maunabo Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 35 km (22 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 36 km (23 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 42 km (26 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 44 km (27 mi) S of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 28 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.9 26 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.4 11 km SSE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 7 km S of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.4 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.2 17 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.9 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.2 19 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.0 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.0 15 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.6 17 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.4 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.9 14 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.7 10 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.7 25 km SE of Emajagua, 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 120 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.