QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

14 km W of Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico

· 34 km deep · released about 720 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Cabo Rojo Municipio 14 kmHormigueros Municipio 26 kmLajas Municipio 29 kmSan Germán Municipio 32 kmAñasco Municipio 38 kmRincón Municipio 39 kmSabana Grande Municipio 40 kmGuánica Municipio 42 kmLas Marías Municipio 44 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 2.9 (md)
Depth
34 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Cabo Rojo Municipio, 14 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 677 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 720 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 21,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 15,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.3× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 720 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 17.9930, -67.3177. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Cabo Rojo Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) W of here earthquakes near Cabo Rojo Municipio
Hormigueros Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Hormigueros Municipio
Lajas Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) W of here earthquakes near Lajas Municipio
San Germán Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near San Germán Municipio
Añasco Municipio, PR 38 km (24 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Añasco Municipio
Rincón Municipio, PR 39 km (24 mi) S of here earthquakes near Rincón Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.2 6 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.1 5 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.1 8 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  4. 2.4 3 km E of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.3 4 km ESE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.4 3 km E of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.3 7 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.6 7 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.3 4 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.4 5 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.3 6 km ENE of La Parguera, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.5 6 km W of Fuig, Puerto Rico
  13. 3.3 3 km WSW of Puerto Real, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.3 3 km WSW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.1 1 km NE of Palomas, 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 5.9 on 2020-01-11 — it released about 30,000 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.