QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

6 km NNW of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico

· 72 km deep · released about 1.8 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vega Baja Municipio 5 kmManatí Municipio 9 kmVega Alta Municipio 11 kmBarceloneta Municipio 15 kmDorado Municipio 17 kmMorovis Municipio 20 kmFlorida Municipio 21 kmCorozal Municipio 23 kmToa Alta 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 3.4 (md)
Depth
72 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vega Baja Municipio, 5 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 737 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 1.8 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 92,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,100× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 3.8× 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 18.4952, -66.4205. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vega Baja Municipio, PR 5 km (3 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Vega Baja Municipio
Manatí Municipio, PR 9 km (6 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Manatí Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Barceloneta Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) E of here earthquakes near Barceloneta Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 17 km (10 mi) W of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Morovis Municipio, PR 20 km (12 mi) N of here earthquakes near Morovis 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. 2.2 7 km NW of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.0 0 km WNW of Candelaria, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.0 2 km WNW of Orocovis, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.3 6 km WNW of Palomas, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.7 15 km NNW of Garrochales, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.1 5 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.0 36 km N of Carrizales, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.8 1 km SE of Naranjito, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.2 20 km N of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.1 19 km NNE of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.1 7 km SSW of Corozal, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.0 1 km NNE of Hatillo, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.9 36 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.3 0 km ENE of Parcelas La Milagrosa, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.3 3 km E of Guayabal, 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 4.4 on 2018-12-09 — it released about 33 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.