Puerto Rico

Earthquakes in Puerto Rico, 2017–2026

From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 72 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Puerto Rico. The strongest was a magnitude 6.4 on January 7, 2020 (4 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico).

Open the live map

The last 30 days · as of

USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.

Live
Open the live map

What the record holds

It was also the deadliest: NOAA records 4 deaths for it. 2 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. 2020 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 44 of the 72. 26 came in the 30 days after the strongest, within 150 km of it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.4 on May 2, 2020 (6 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto Rico). NOAA lists one tsunami that began in or off Puerto Rico. It reached 0.06 m, on January 7, 2020.

The events

  • August 5, 2025Earthquake · M 5.738 km SE of Boca de Yuma, Dominican RepublicUSGS
  • May 2, 2020Earthquake · M 5.46 km S of Tallaboa, Puerto RicoUSGS · NOAA NCEI
  • January 11, 2020Earthquake · M 5.95 km SE of Maria Antonia, Puerto RicoUSGS
  • January 7, 2020Earthquake · M 6.44 km SSE of Indios, Puerto Rico · 4 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • January 7, 2020Tsunami · 0.06 m highPuerto RicoNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
  • January 6, 2020Earthquake · M 5.814 km S of Indios, Puerto RicoUSGS
  • September 24, 2019Earthquake · M 6.067 km NNW of San Antonio, Puerto RicoUSGS

Good to know

  • An event counts for Puerto Rico when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where Puerto Rico is the nearest country.
  • USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
  • NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
  • Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
  • A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
  • The map frames the box around Puerto Rico, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
  • Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history

Other places nearby