QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

12 km NNE of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico

· 79 km deep · released about 750 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vega Baja Municipio 14 kmManatí Municipio 14 kmBarceloneta Municipio 15 kmVega Alta Municipio 19 kmDorado Municipio 23 kmFlorida Municipio 25 kmArecibo Municipio 27 kmMorovis Municipio 28 kmToa Baja Municipio 30 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
79 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vega Baja Municipio, 14 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 107 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 750 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 20,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 14,000× 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 750 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 18.5662, -66.4555. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vega Baja Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Vega Baja Municipio
Manatí Municipio, PR 14 km (9 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Manatí Municipio
Barceloneta Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Barceloneta Municipio
Vega Alta Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Vega Alta Municipio
Dorado Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Dorado Municipio
Florida Municipio, PR 25 km (15 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Florida Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.8 8 km NNE of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.8 13 km NNE of Carrizales, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.4 6 km SW of Cayuco, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.0 15 km N of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.8 43 km NNE of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.2 5 km WSW of Naranjito, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.8 10 km NNE of Tierras Nuevas Poniente, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.6 5 km N of Animas, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.1 36 km NNE of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.4 19 km NNE of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.3 4 km N of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.9 7 km NNE of Brenas, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.7 5 km SW of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.7 14 km N of Carrizales, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.9 29 km N of San Juan, 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 2017-08-18 — it released about 640 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.