Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - 6.4 km northeast of Managua, Nicaragua, on Saturday, December 23, 1972 at 06:29 (GMT)

Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - 6.4 km northeast of Managua, Nicaragua, on Saturday, December 23, 1972 at 06:29 (GMT)

Very strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake at 10 km depth

1 Jan 00:00 UTC: First to report: USGS after 30 seconds.
Date & time: Dec 23, 1972 06:29:44 UTC
Magnitude: 6.3
Depth: 10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 12.184°N / 86.223°W (Departamento de Managua, Nicaragua)
Antipode: 12.184°S / 93.777°E
Nearest volcano: Nejapa-Miraflores (13 km / 8 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
6 km (4 mi) NNE of Managua (pop: 973,100) --> See nearby quakes!
13 km (8 mi) ENE of Ciudad Sandino (Managua) (pop: 50,000) --> See nearby quakes!
14 km (9 mi) W of Tipitapa (Managua) (pop: 50,000) --> See nearby quakes!
24 km (15 mi) NNE of El Crucero (Managua) (pop: 16,500) --> See nearby quakes!
27 km (17 mi) NNW of Masaya (pop: 130,100) --> See nearby quakes!
31 km (19 mi) N of San Marcos (Carazo) (pop: 23,300) --> See nearby quakes!
31 km (19 mi) NNW of Masatepe (Masaya) (pop: 21,500) --> See nearby quakes!
36 km (23 mi) N of Diriamba (Carazo) (pop: 35,000) --> See nearby quakes!
44 km (27 mi) NNE of San Rafael del Sur (Managua) (pop: 29,800) --> See nearby quakes!
77 km (48 mi) ESE of Leon (León) (pop: 144,500) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 1.8 x 1014 joules (49.4 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 42502 tons of TNT or 2.7 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.DepthLocationSource
6.310 kmNicaraguaUSGS
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.
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Aftershocks

[More info]

Recorded aftershocks, latest first (2 quakes)

Date and timeMag
Depth		LocationDetails
Apr 9, 1973 03:17
49 years ago
4.7

167 km		Departamento de Leon, 36 km NW of Managua, NicaraguaMore
Feb 15, 1973 00:15
49 years ago
5.1

33 km		North Pacific Ocean, 71 km S of Managua, NicaraguaMore

Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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