Strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - Near the Coast of Nicaragua on Wednesday, 12 August 1970 at 09:24 (GMT)

Strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - Near the Coast of Nicaragua on Wednesday, 12 August 1970 at 09:24 (GMT)

Strong magnitude 6.5 earthquake at 60 km depth

Date & time: 12 Aug 1970 09:24:16 UTC
Magnitude: 6.5
Depth: 60.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 11.892°N / 86.63°W (Nicaragua)
Nearest volcano: Nejapa-Miraflores (42 km / 26 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
17 km (10 mi) SW of Villa El Carmen (pop: 5,220) --> See nearby quakes!
17 km (11 mi) NW of Masachapa (pop: 5,000) --> See nearby quakes!
21 km (13 mi) WNW of San Rafael del Sur (pop: 29,800) --> See nearby quakes!
37 km (23 mi) WSW of El Crucero (pop: 16,500) --> See nearby quakes!
42 km (26 mi) S of Nagarote (pop: 26,300) --> See nearby quakes!
43 km (27 mi) W of Diriamba (pop: 35,000) --> See nearby quakes!
43 km (27 mi) SW of Ciudad Sandino (pop: 50,000) --> See nearby quakes!
49 km (31 mi) WSW of Managua (pop: 973,100) --> See nearby quakes!
59 km (37 mi) W of Masaya (pop: 130,100) --> See nearby quakes!
66 km (41 mi) SSE of Leon (pop: 144,500) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 3.5 x 1014 joules (98.6 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 84802 tons of TNT or 5.3 atomic bombs!) More info
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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.
MagnitudeDepthLocationSource
M 6.560 kmnear the coast of NicaraguaUSGS
Note: for quakes of 2012 and earlier, our database often contains only records from USGS.

User reports for this quake

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
There are no user reports for this quake yet. If you felt it be the first to report it!
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Aftershocks of the 6.5 quake Near the Coast of Nicaragua 12 August 1970 09:24 GMT

More info
Recorded aftershocks, latest first (1 quakes):
  • 12 Aug 1970 10:24 UTC
    | M 5.6 |
    60 km (37.3 mi) depth
    |
    16 km (10 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area since 1900

Strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - Near the Coast of Nicaragua on Wednesday, 12 August 1970 at 09:24 (GMT)

Map of earlier quakes

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