QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.0mww

7 km SE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico

· 10 km deep · released about 480 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ponce Municipio 10 kmPeñuelas Municipio 11 kmGuayanilla Municipio 15 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 21 kmYauco Municipio 25 kmGuánica Municipio 26 kmAdjuntas Municipio 28 kmVillalba Municipio 30 kmSanta Isabel 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 5.0 (mww)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
82 reports · strongest reported intensity VII
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Ponce Municipio, 10 km NE
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. 82 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

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 17.9418, -66.6754. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ponce Municipio, PR 10 km (6 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 11 km (7 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 15 km (9 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 25 km (16 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 26 km (16 mi) E of here earthquakes near Guánica 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. 2.7 2 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  2. 1.7 11 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  3. 1.8 11 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.4 12 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  5. 1.7 2 km S of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.3 7 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 2.0 3 km S of Magas Arriba, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.7 7 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  9. 3.9 7 km SSE of Maria Antonia, Puerto Rico
  10. 3.7 10 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  11. 1.9 7 km SSE of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.2 1 km SSW of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico
  13. 4.1 7 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.6 6 km SSW of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.3 2 km SE of Magas Arriba, 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.