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Strong mag. 6.0 Earthquake - Coral Sea, 47 km northeast of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, Vanuatu, on Thursday, Mar 24, 2022 08:57 am (Efate time)

Strong mag. 6.0 Earthquake - Coral Sea, 47 km northeast of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, Vanuatu, on Thursday, Mar 24, 2022 08:57 am (Efate time) Strong mag. 6.0 Earthquake - Coral Sea, 47 km northeast of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, Vanuatu, on Thursday, Mar 24, 2022 08:57 am (Efate time)

Strong magnitude 6.0 earthquake at 116 km depth

23 Mar 22:05 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 8 minutes.
23 Mar 22:07: Magnitude recalculated from 5.8 to 5.7. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 120.0 to 124.0 km (from 75 to 77 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 16 km (9.8 mi) towards NNE.
23 Mar 22:16: Now using data updates from USGS
23 Mar 23:20: Magnitude recalculated from 5.9 to 6.0. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 112.9 to 115.7 km (from 70 to 72 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 2.8 km (1.7 mi) towards SSE.

Earthquake details

Date & timeMar 23, 2022 21:57:00 UTC
Local time at epicenterThursday, Mar 24, 2022 08:57 am (Pacific/Efate GMT +11)
StatusConfirmed
Magnitude6
Depth115.7 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude15.1542°S / 167.3908°E Coral Sea, Vanuatu
Antipode15.1542°N / 12.609°W
Shaking intensityWeak shaking
Felt1 report
Primary data sourceUSGS (United States Geological Survey)
Nearest volcanoAoba (54 km / 34 mi)
Weather at epicenter at time of quakeOvercast Clouds 26.9°C (80 F), humidity: 80%, wind: 6 m/s (11 kts) from NNW
Estimated seismic energy released6.3 x 1013 joules (17.5 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 15080 tons of TNT or 0.9 atomic bombs!) | about seismic energy
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Nearby places

Distance Place Max. shaking intensity(*) Region Country
36 km (23 mi)
WNW of epicenter
Port-Olry
(pop: 1,950)
IV
Light
Sanma Province
47 km (30 mi)
SSW of epicenter
Santo
(pop: 13,400)
IV
Light
Sanma Province
101 km (63 mi)
S of epicenter
Norsup
(pop: 3,000)
IV
Light
Malampa Province
143 km (89 mi)
N of epicenter
Sola
(pop: 1,170)
IV
Light
Torba
304 km (189 mi)
SSE of epicenter
Port Vila
(pop: 35,900)
III
Weak
Shefa Province
Notes:
(*) Shaking intensity according to the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (MMI) and estimated using seismic models.

Compare Quake Data

Data for the same earthquake as reported by different agencies

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 Time GMT Epicenter Agency
6.0 116 km (72 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:00 36 Km ESE of Port-Olry, Vanuatu USGS (United States Geological Survey)
6.1 122 km (76 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:00 VANUATU
14 km (8.5 mi) epicenter difference with USGS
EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre)
5.5 149 km (93 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:04 Vanuatu: Near Nouméa
9.3 km (5.8 mi) epicenter difference with USGS
RENASS (Réseau National de Surveillance Sismique (RéNaSS))
6.0 116 km (72 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:00 Vanuatu Islands
0 km (0 mi) epicenter difference with USGS
RaspberryShake (RaspberryShake)
6.0 104 km (65 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:00 Vanuatu Islands [Sea: Vanuatu]
15 km (9.2 mi) epicenter difference with USGS
INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia)
6.0 170 km (106 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:05 Vanuatu Islands
2 km (1.3 mi) epicenter difference with USGS
GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
6.0 116 km (72 mi) 2022-03-23 21:57:00 Vanuatu Islands
8.6 km (5.4 mi) epicenter difference with USGS
GeoAu (Geoscience Australia )

Seismograms

Seismic station: Honiara, Solomon Islands (HNR/IU network) | Distance from quake: 1028 km / 639 mi | Show on map | Station Info
Seismic station Honiara, Solomon Islands: 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: 0.02-5.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool
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User-reports for this quake (2)

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
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Brisbane / not felt (reported through our app)
Port vila / Weak shaking (MMI III) (reported through our app)

Aftershocks

[More info]

Recorded aftershocks, latest first (15 quakes)

Date and Time GMTMag
Depth
RegionDetails
Sep 8, 2022 22:13
1 year 12 weeks ago
4.6

124 km
Coral Sea, 55 km NE of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Sep 5, 2022 18:20
1 year 12 weeks ago
4.6

126 km
Coral Sea, 78 km N of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Sep 3, 2022 11:35
1 year 13 weeks ago
4.7

118 km
Coral Sea, 38 km NE of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Sep 3, 2022 11:01
1 year 13 weeks ago
4.6

161 km
Coral Sea, 98 km N of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Sep 3, 2022 05:57
1 year 13 weeks ago
4.8

120 km
Coral Sea, 68 km N of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Jul 24, 2022 19:30
1 year 18 weeks ago
5.0

129 km
Coral Sea, 78 km N of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Jul 14, 2022 23:17
1 year 20 weeks ago
5.1

22 km
Coral Sea, 61 km NW of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Jul 14, 2022 17:50
1 year 20 weeks ago
5.8

22 km
Coral Sea, 58 km NW of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Jul 8, 2022 01:01
1 year 21 weeks ago
5.4

95 km
Coral Sea, 72 km N of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Jun 13, 2022 17:26
1 year 24 weeks ago
4.9

224 km
Penama Province, 70 km E of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
May 11, 2022 14:20
1 year 29 weeks ago
5.2

123 km
Coral Sea, 45 km NE of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
May 6, 2022 08:41
1 year 30 weeks ago
5.0

56 km
Coral Sea, 66 km NW of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Apr 8, 2022 19:40
1 year 34 weeks ago
5.0

111 km
Coral Sea, 70 km NE of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Mar 29, 2022 04:08
1 year 35 weeks ago
4.5

133 km
Coral Sea, 94 km N of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore
Mar 24, 2022 08:09
1 year 36 weeks ago
4.6

133 km
Coral Sea, 51 km NE of Santo, Luganville, Sanma Province, VanuatuMore

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