QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8ml

4 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico

· 10 km deep · released about 7.6 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Peñuelas Municipio 8 kmGuayanilla Municipio 10 kmPonce Municipio 13 kmYauco Municipio 21 kmGuánica Municipio 21 kmJuana Díaz Municipio 25 kmAdjuntas Municipio 26 kmSabana Grande Municipio 28 kmJayuya Municipio 32 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 3.8 (ml)
Depth
10 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Peñuelas Municipio, 8 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2381 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 7.6 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 16× 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 17.9509, -66.7219. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Peñuelas Municipio, PR 8 km (5 mi) S of here earthquakes near Peñuelas Municipio
Guayanilla Municipio, PR 10 km (6 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Guayanilla Municipio
Ponce Municipio, PR 13 km (8 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Ponce Municipio
Yauco Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yauco Municipio
Guánica Municipio, PR 21 km (13 mi) E of here earthquakes near Guánica Municipio
Juana Díaz Municipio, PR 25 km (16 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Juana Díaz 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. 2.9 1 km NNW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  2. 3.3 Puerto Rico region
  3. 2.1 2 km N of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  4. 3.1 9 km S of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  5. 2.2 8 km SSW of Guánica, Puerto Rico
  6. 2.1 1 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  7. 4.2 6 km SE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  8. 2.6 3 km S of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  9. 1.7 3 km SW of Indios, Puerto Rico
  10. 1.7 1 km NNE of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  11. 2.0 13 km S of Indios, Puerto Rico
  12. 2.5 0 km NNW of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
  13. 1.7 9 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico
  14. 2.5 1 km E of Indios, Puerto Rico
  15. 2.8 Puerto Rico region

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 7,900 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.