A magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck off Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast on Tuesday afternoon, with an epicenter just offshore from one of the country’s most popular beach destinations. The Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) at the Universidad de Costa Rica reported the tremor at 2:54 p.m. yesterday, with shaking felt across the Pacific region and into the Central Valley.
The epicenter sat roughly 11 kilometers southwest of Espadilla de Quepos, in Puntarenas province — a stretch of coastline that anchors Manuel Antonio National Park, the most visited national park in Costa Rica and a centerpiece of the country’s beach tourism circuit. Espadilla beach lies at the northern boundary of the park and is lined with hotels, restaurants and tour operators serving thousands of international visitors weekly.
The RSN attributed the event to subduction of the Cocos plate beneath the Caribbean and Panama plates — what seismologists describe as deformation at intermediate depth, a typical mechanism for the Pacific central zone. No damage or injuries had been reported as of this morning, and the Sistema Nacional de Monitoreo de Tsunamis (Sinamot) did not issue any tsunami advisory; events of this magnitude do not generate dangerous waves.
The two main seismic monitoring institutions in Costa Rica produced different readings for the same event, a common occurrence in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake. The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) at the Universidad Nacional initially reported the tremor at magnitude 4.2 with a depth of 65 kilometers, then revised it to magnitude 4.6 at a depth of 40 kilometers.
The RSN settled on magnitude 4.4. Discrepancies between automatic and revised readings, and between agencies that use different station networks and algorithms, are routine in the first hours after a quake. The RSN noted that its calculation drew on data from monitoring stations as far away as Nicaragua’s INETER and the University of Panama, in addition to local Costa Rican networks.
The Pacific central region is one of the most seismically active parts of Costa Rica, and Quepos itself has a notable seismic history. In October 2025, a magnitude 6.1 quake offshore Quepos was felt across our country and produced more than 30 aftershocks. Tuesday’s event was significantly smaller and brief, lasting only seconds at the surface for most observers.
Those in the area are reminded that small to moderate tremors are routine in Costa Rica and that hotels and tour operators in seismically active zones are required to follow national building and evacuation standards.
