QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 5.6mww

74 km ESE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea

· 58 km deep · released about 3.8 kilotons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N
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 5.6 (mww)
Depth
58 km below the surface
Felt
1 report · strongest reported intensity II
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 17 hours ago

This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 45× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 5.6 about 3.8 kilotons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7,900× 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.

Revisions

USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.

What changedFromToWhen
reported intensitynot reported2
felt reportsnot reported1
impact alertnot reportedgreen
measured intensitynot reported4.27

Where

Epicentre -4.6952, 152.8383. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 4.9 78 km ESE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea

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.

On USGS

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