Moderate mag. 5.2 earthquake - Malampa Province, 168 km north of Port Vila, Shefa Province, Vanuatu, on Sunday, 16 December 2018 at 07:44 (GMT)
This quake was likely a foreshock of the 5.6 quake 88 km east of Norsup, Malampa Province, Vanuatu, 16 December 2018 09:48 GMT, which followed after 2 hours and 4 minutes.
Quake Data | Interactive map | User Reports | Aftershocks | Earlier quakes in same area | Quakes in Vanuatu | Malampa Province | Sanma Province | Shefa Province | Torba | Tafea Province

Moderate magnitude 5.2 earthquake at 10 km depth
16 Dec 07:56 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 13 minutes.
Magnitude: 5.2
Depth: 10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 16.23°S / 168.15°E

Nearest volcano: Ambrym (4 km / 2 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
80 km (50 mi) E of Lakatoro (Malampa) (pop: 705) --> See nearby quakes!
82 km (51 mi) ESE of Norsup (Malampa) (pop: 3,000) --> See nearby quakes!
132 km (82 mi) SE of Luganville (Sanma) (pop: 13,400) --> See nearby quakes!
168 km (105 mi) N of Port Vila (Shefa) (pop: 35,900) --> See nearby quakes!
175 km (109 mi) SE of Port-Olry (Sanma) (pop: 1,950) --> See nearby quakes!
270 km (168 mi) SSE of Sola (Torba) (pop: 1,170) --> See nearby quakes!
387 km (241 mi) NNW of Isangel (Tafea) (pop: 1,440) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
Estimated released energy: 4 x 1012 joules (1.11 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 951 tons of TNT) More info
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.
Magnitude | Depth | Location | Source |
M 5.2 | 10 km | Vanuatu Islands | GFZ |
M 5.2 | 50 km | VANUATU | EMSC |
M 5.2 | 34 km | Vanuatu Islands | GeoAu |
M 5.2 | 49 km | - 89km ESE of Lakatoro, Vanuatu | USGS |
User reports for this quake
User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
be the first to report it!
There are no user reports for this quake yet. If you felt it Aftershocks of the 5.2 quake Malampa Province, 168 km north of Port Vila, Shefa Province, Vanuatu, 16 December 2018 07:44 GMT
More info
Recorded aftershocks, latest first (3 quakes):- 23 Dec 2018 20:29 UTC| M 4.7 |10 km (6.2 mi) depth|22 km (14 mi) distance| EMSC | Details
- 17 Dec 2018 08:04 UTC| M 4.9 |10 km (6.2 mi) depth|21 km (13 mi) distance| USGS | Details
- 16 Dec 2018 09:48 UTC| M 5.6 |32.8 km (20.4 mi) depth|11 km (7 mi) distance| GeoAu | Details
Earlier earthquakes in the same area
Moderate mag. 5.2 earthquake - Malampa Province, 168 km north of Port Vila, Shefa Province, Vanuatu, on Sunday, 16 December 2018 at 07:44 (GMT)Click here to search our database for earlier earthquakes in the same area since 1900!