Strong Mag. 6.5 Earthquake - South Pacific Ocean, 282 km Northwest of Nukalofa, Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, on 24 Apr 1:23 pm (GMT +13)

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Strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - Fiji Islands Region, Tonga, on Saturday, 24 April 2021 at 00:23 (GMT) - information

$Strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - South Pacific Ocean, 282 km northwest of Nukalofa, Nuku\'alofa, Tongatapu, on 24 Apr 1:23 pm (GMT +13)$ $Strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - South Pacific Ocean, 282 km northwest of Nukalofa, Nuku\'alofa, Tongatapu, on 24 Apr 1:23 pm (GMT +13)$

Strong magnitude 6.5 earthquake at 283 km depth

24 Apr 00:32 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 8 minutes.
24 Apr 00:33: Magnitude recalculated from 6.1 to 6.2. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 299.0 to 291.0 km (from 186 to 181 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 20 km (13 mi) towards W.
24 Apr 05:02: Magnitude recalculated from 6.2 to 6.5. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 291.0 to 283.0 km (from 181 to 176 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 16 km (10.1 mi) towards WNW.

Earthquake details

Date & time	Apr 24, 2021 00:23:37 UTC
Local time at epicenter	24 Apr 1:23 pm (GMT +13)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	6.5
Depth	283.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	18.84°S / 176.34°W (South Pacific Ocean, Tonga)
Antipode	18.84°N / 3.66°E
Shaking intensity	Very weak shaking
Felt	1 report
Primary data source	GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
Nearest volcano	Metis Shoal (Lateiki) (125 km / 78 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	235 km (146 mi) WNW of Bangai (Pangai) (pop: 1,740) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 249 km (155 mi) W of Neiafu (pop: 4,320) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 282 km (175 mi) NNW of Nukalofa (Nuku'alofa) (pop: 22,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 282 km (175 mi) NNW of Nuku‘alofa (pop: 22,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 288 km (179 mi) NNW of Kolonga (pop: 1,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 313 km (195 mi) NNW of ‘Ohonua (Ohonua) (pop: 1,240) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 419 km (261 mi) SW of Hihifo (pop: 815) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 286 km (178 mi) NNW of Amsterdam Island (pop: 75,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Broken Clouds 27.5°C (81 F), humidity: 73%, wind: 5 m/s (9 kts) from ESE
Estimated seismic energy released	3.5 x 10¹⁴ joules (98.6 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 84802 tons of TNT or 5.3 atomic bombs!) \| about seismic energy

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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
6.5	283 km	Fiji Islands Region, Tonga	GFZ
6.4	273 km	FIJI REGION, Tonga	EMSC
6.1	282 km	Near Nouméa, Tonga	RENASS
6.2	302 km	Fiji Islands Region, Tonga	BMKG
6.5	281 km	Fiji Islands Region, Tonga	GeoAu
6.4	259 km	Tonga [Sea]	INGV
6.5	301 km	223 Km WNW of Pangai, Tonga	USGS

Most recent quakes Top 20 past 24 hrs Quakes in Tonga

Seismograms

Seismic station: Tucson, Arizona (TUC/IU network) | Distance from quake: 8994 km / 5589 mi | Show on map | Station Info

Seismic station Tucson, Arizona: 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: 0.02-2.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool

User reports for this quake (1)

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

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Leimatua Vavau (246.6 km E of epicenter) [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short : I heard the noise for quite a long time before I felt the swaying. Because of the nose I was waiting for the movement and then felt it. The lights in the room swayed a little but the girl with me neither heard nor felt it | 21 users found this interesting.

Aftershocks

[More info]

Recorded aftershocks, latest first (4 quakes)

Date and time	Mag Depth	Location	Details
Sep 9, 2021 04:59 1 year 28 weeks ago	5.8 10 km	South Pacific Ocean, 228 km NW of Nukalofa, Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu	More
Sep 7, 2021 09:49 1 year 28 weeks ago	6.0 10 km	South Pacific Ocean, 215 km NW of Nukalofa, Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu	More
Jun 26, 2021 02:16 1 year 38 weeks ago	4.5 265 km	South Pacific Ocean, 235 km N of Nukalofa, Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu	More
May 6, 2021 23:26 1 year 46 weeks ago	4.5 574 km	South Pacific Ocean, Fiji	More

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