Contact | RSS | EN | DE | EL | ES | FR | IT | RU

Moderate mag. 4.5 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 99 km west of Liberia, Provincia de Guanacaste, Costa Rica, on Sunday, Mar 19, 2023 at 3:51 am (GMT -6) -

I felt this quake

Moderate mag. 4.5 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 99 km west of Liberia, Provincia de Guanacaste, Costa Rica, on Sunday, Mar 19, 2023 at 3:51 am (GMT -6)

Moderate magnitude 4.5 earthquake at 10 km depth

19 Mar 10:00 UTC: First to report: INETER after 8 minutes.
19 Mar 10:07: Magnitude recalculated from 4.5 to 4.3. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 9.0 to 14.0 km (from 5.6 to 8.7 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 5.9 km (3.7 mi) towards ENE.
19 Mar 10:12: Now using data updates from USGS

I felt this quake

I didn't feel it

Earthquake details

Date & time	Mar 19, 2023 09:51:57 UTC -
Local time at epicenter	Sunday, Mar 19, 2023 at 3:51 am (GMT -6)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	4.5
Depth	10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	10.6019°N / 86.3444°W (North Pacific Ocean, Costa Rica)
Antipode	10.602°S / 93.656°E
Shaking intensity	Moderate shaking
Felt	2 reports
Primary data source	USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Nearest volcano	Orosí (104 km / 65 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	65 km (40 mi) WNW of Tamarindo (pop: 6,380) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 77 km (48 mi) W of Sardinal (pop: 3,270) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 91 km (57 mi) WNW of Santa Cruz (pop: 12,300) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 99 km (62 mi) W of Liberia (pop: 45,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 138 km (86 mi) WSW of San Jose (Upala) (pop: 31,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 171 km (106 mi) S of Managua (Nicaragua) (pop: 973,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 179 km (111 mi) WNW of Puntarenas (pop: 35,700) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 258 km (161 mi) WNW of San Jose (pop: 335,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 131 km (82 mi) SW of Isla de Ometepe Island (pop: 30,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Overcast Clouds 27.9°C (82 F), humidity: 76%, wind: 6 m/s (12 kts) from NE
Estimated seismic energy released	3.5 x 10¹¹ joules (98.6 megawatt hours, equivalent to 84.8 tons of TNT) \| about seismic energy

Show interactive Map

[smaller] [bigger]

If you felt this quake (or if you were near the epicenter), please share your experience and submit a short "I felt it" report! Other users would love to hear about it!
If you did NOT feel the quake although you were in the area, please report it! Your contribution is valuable to earthquake science, seismic hazard analysis and mitigation efforts. You can use your device location or the map to indicate where you were during the earthquake. Thank you!

Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies

Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.

Mag.	Depth	Location	Source
4.5	10 km	57 Km Al Noroeste De Rosario, Costa Rica	USGS
4.3	14 km	76 Km W of Sardinal, Costa Rica	INETER
4.5	10 km	Off Coast of Costa Rica	RaspberryShake
4.5	30 km	OFF COAST OF COSTA RICA	EMSC
4.4	10 km	Off Coast of Costa Rica	GFZ
4.9	19 km	Costa Rica: 76 Km Al Oeste De Cabo Velas, Guanacaste.	RSN

Most recent quakes Top 20 past 24 hrs Quakes in Nicaragua

Seismograms

Seismic station: Managua, Nicaragua (MGAN/NU network) | Distance from quake: 172 km / 107 mi | Show on map | Station Info

Seismic station Managua, Nicaragua: vertical movement plot around time of quake (source: IRIS/BUD)

Seismogram (vertical component) around time of quake. Thin dotted red line indicates time of quake. Seismic waves arrive some time later, depending on distance. Bandpass filter applied: 0.2-10.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool

User reports for this quake (2)

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.

Contribute:
Leave a comment if you find a particular report interesting or want to add to it.
Flag as inappropriate.
Mark as helpful or interesting.
Send your own user report!

Translate

Playa Potrero, Guanacaste, Costa Rica / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s : Very week shaking I felt in awake moment in my bed. I felt gentle movement first that was followed by some softer movements for 10 - 15 seconds. Felt like a low magnitude around 4.

near Liberia, Guanacaste (103.6 km E of epicenter) [Map] / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

Earlier earthquakes in the same area

Click here to search our database for earlier earthquakes in the same area since 1900!

Try our free app!

Android | iOS version

Why is there advertising on this site?

Support us - Help us upgrade our services!

We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world. Maintaining our website and our free apps does require, however, considerable time and resources.
We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team. We're aiming to achieve uninterrupted service wherever an earthquake or volcano eruption unfolds, and your donations can make it happen! Every donation will be highly appreciated. If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please make a donation (PayPal or Online credit card payment).

Planned features:

Improved multilanguage support
Tsunami alerts
Faster responsiveness

Thanks to your past donations, these features have been added recently:

Design upgrade
Detailed quake stats
Additional seismic data sources

Download and Upgrade the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online:
Android | IOS

Thank you!

Sources: VolcanoDiscovery / VolcanoAdventures and other sources as noted.
Use of material: Most text and images on our websites are owned by us. Re-use is generally not permitted without authorization. Contact us for licensing rights.

Volcanoes & Earthquakes