QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.4md

7 km WNW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 15 km deep · released about 120 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 11 kmCeiba Municipio 17 kmNaguabo Municipio 23 kmHumacao Municipio 27 kmFajardo Municipio 29 kmCulebra Municipio 32 kmLuquillo Municipio 32 kmYabucoa Municipio 35 kmLas Piedras 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 2.4 (md)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 11 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 89 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 120 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 92,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 8.2× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.4 about 120 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 18.1297, -65.5325. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) W of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 17 km (10 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 23 km (14 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 27 km (17 mi) E of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Fajardo Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Fajardo Municipio
Culebra Municipio, PR 32 km (20 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.2 40 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  2. 2.9 8 km WNW of Culebra, Puerto Rico
  3. 3.1 12 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 16 km SE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  5. 3.2 7 km ENE of Fajardo, Puerto Rico
  6. 3.1 2 km SW of Hato Candal, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.1 14 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.9 17 km S of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  9. 2.9 16 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  10. 2.7 24 km SE of Emajagua, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.1 10 km E of El Negro, Puerto Rico
  12. 3.2 11 km SSE of Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.1 5 km SSE of Bajandas, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 14 km N of Isabel Segunda, Puerto Rico
  15. 3.0 6 km SE of Isabel Segunda, 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 2021-10-08 — it released about 4,100 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.