QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.0mb

14 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico

· 10 km deep · released about 480 tons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Peñuelas Municipio 18 kmPonce Municipio 18 kmGuayanilla Municipio 18 kmGuánica Municipio 25 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 27 kmYauco Municipio 29 kmSanta Isabel Municipio 35 kmAdjuntas Municipio 35 kmSabana Grande Municipio 35 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 5.0 (mb)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Peñuelas Municipio, 18 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2381 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 480 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 350× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 16× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 11× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.0 about 480 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1,000× 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 17.8685, -66.7029. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) S of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 18 km (11 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 25 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 27 km (17 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 29 km (18 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.7 10 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.9 7 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  3. 2.2 1 km SSW of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico
  4. 4.1 7 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.6 6 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.3 2 km SE of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  7. 3.4 Puerto Rico region
  8. 2.9 13 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.3 4 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.9 3 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.8 10 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.6 6 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  13. 2.3 5 km SW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.4 2 km SE of Yauco, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.0 5 km SSE of Indios, 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 6.4 on 2020-01-07 — it released about 130 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.