QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.3ml

15 km S of Fern Forest, Hawaii

· 6.5 km deep · released about 1.3 kilotons of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Hawaii County 50 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 5.3 (ml)
Depth
6.5 km below the surface
Felt
1004 reports · strongest reported intensity VI
Measured shaking
intensity VI (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Hawaii County, 50 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2274 days ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 1004 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 6× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4.3× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.3 about 1.3 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2,600× 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 19.3300, -155.1207. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Hawaii County, HI 50 km (31 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Hawaii County

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

51 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.2 9 km WSW of Volcano, Hawaii
  2. 1.7 6 km S of P?hala, Hawaii
  3. 1.8 10 km SSE of P?hala, Hawaii
  4. 1.9 14 km SSE of P?hala, Hawaii
  5. 1.9 12 km SSE of P?hala, Hawaii
  6. 1.5 14 km S of Fern Forest, Hawaii
  7. 1.6 39 km ESE of Naalehu, Hawaii
  8. 2.3 6 km SE of Leilani Estates, Hawaii
  9. 1.9 5 km SW of Volcano, Hawaii
  10. 2.3 5 km SW of Volcano, Hawaii
  11. 2.3 14 km E of P?hala, Hawaii
  12. 1.6 41 km ESE of Naalehu, Hawaii
  13. 1.6 38 km ESE of Naalehu, Hawaii
  14. 1.6 39 km ESE of Naalehu, Hawaii
  15. 1.8 40 km ESE of Naalehu, Hawaii

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 4.5 on 2017-03-23.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.