QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9md

16 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico

· 4.3 km deep · released about 570 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Vieques Municipio 19 kmCeiba Municipio 39 kmCulebra Municipio 43 kmHumacao Municipio 44 kmNaguabo Municipio 44 kmYabucoa Municipio 48 kmMaunabo Municipio 51 kmFajardo Municipio 51 kmLas Piedras Municipio 54 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
4.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Vieques Municipio, 19 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 12 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 570 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 27,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 19,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.7× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 570 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 17.9590, -65.4182. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Vieques Municipio, PR 19 km (12 mi) S of here earthquakes near Vieques Municipio
Ceiba Municipio, PR 39 km (24 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Ceiba Municipio
Culebra Municipio, PR 43 km (26 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Culebra Municipio
Humacao Municipio, PR 44 km (27 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Humacao Municipio
Naguabo Municipio, PR 44 km (27 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Naguabo Municipio
Yabucoa Municipio, PR 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Yabucoa Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

8 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. 3.0 28 km SSW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  7. 3.1 14 km SSE of Esperanza, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.9 17 km S of Esperanza, 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 840 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.