QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4md

16 km SSW of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico

· 5.0 km deep · released about 2.1 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Salinas Municipio 18 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 21 kmGuayama Municipio 22 kmArroyo Municipio 29 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 32 kmCoamo Municipio 34 kmCayey Municipio 34 kmAibonito Municipio 35 kmPatillas Municipio 36 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
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Salinas Municipio, 18 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 380 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 2.1 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 80,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 2.1 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4.4× 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 17.8115, -66.2608. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Salinas Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) S of here earthquakes near Salinas Municipio
Santa Isabel Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Isabel Municipio
Guayama Municipio, PR 22 km (14 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Guayama Municipio
Arroyo Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Arroyo Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Coamo Municipio, PR 34 km (21 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Coamo Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 16 km SSW of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.0 8 km SSE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.2 10 km SW of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  4. 1.9 2 km SSW of Capitanejo, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.8 5 km W of Rosa Sanchez, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.1 2 km E of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.0 5 km WSW of Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico
  8. 1.8 4 km E of Pastos, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.3 2 km E of Mariano Colón, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.1 3 km S of Potala Pastillo, Puerto Rico
  11. 3.2 4 km NNE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.0 4 km SW of Jagual, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.4 2 km ENE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 2 km ENE of Ponce, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.4 1 km W of Río Cañas Abajo, 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 5.6 on 2020-01-07 — it released about 1,800 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.