QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

3 km SSE of Palomas, Puerto Rico

· 15 km deep · released about 6.8 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Guayanilla Municipio 7 kmGuánica Municipio 8 kmYauco Municipio 11 kmPeñuelas Municipio 14 kmSabana Grande Municipio 14 kmLajas Municipio 19 kmMaricao Municipio 22 kmSan Germán Municipio 23 kmAdjuntas 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Guayanilla Municipio, 7 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 827 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 6.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.8 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 17.9872, -66.8573. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 7 km (4 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) S of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Sabana Grande Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Sabana Grande Municipio
Lajas Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) E of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 2 km ESE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.6 5 km SSW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.4 5 km WSW of Liborio Negron Torres, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.1 8 km SSE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.3 6 km WSW of Estancias de Florida, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.4 10 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.5 6 km E of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  8. 3.0 5 km SW of Liborio Negron Torres, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.4 6 km W of Maricao, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.0 6 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.5 2 km NW of Las Marias, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.1 1 km ENE of Yauco, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.5 6 km NE of Tallaboa Alta, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 4 km WNW of San Sebastián, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 5 km SSW of Guánica, 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 18,000,000 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.