Very strong mag. 6.5 earthquake - West Sepik Province, 16 km southwest of Aitape, Sandaun, Papua New Guinea, on Friday, 26 September 1980 at 15:20 (GMT)

Very strong magnitude 6.5 earthquake at 33 km depth

Date & time: 26 Sep 1980 15:20:37 UTC
Magnitude: 6.5
Depth: 33.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 3.225°S / 142.237°E

(West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea)
Nearest volcano: Kairinu (124 km / 77 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
16 km (10 mi) SW of Aitape (Sandaun) (pop: 5,550) --> See nearby quakes!
120 km (75 mi) ESE of Vanimo (Sandaun) (pop: 11,200) --> See nearby quakes!
120 km (75 mi) ESE of Vanimo (Sandaun) (pop: 11,200) --> See nearby quakes!
128 km (79 mi) NNW of Ambunti (East Sepik) (pop: 2,070) --> See nearby quakes!
159 km (99 mi) WNW of Wewak (East Sepik) (pop: 18,200) --> See nearby quakes!
185 km (115 mi) ESE of Jayapura (Papua, Indonesia) (pop: 134,900) --> See nearby quakes!
191 km (119 mi) ESE of Abepura (Papua, Indonesia) (pop: 62,200) --> See nearby quakes!
361 km (224 mi) NNW of Mendi (Southern Highlands) (pop: 26,300) --> See nearby quakes!
367 km (228 mi) NW of Mt Hagen (Dei District, Western Highlands) (pop: 33,600) --> See nearby quakes!
882 km (548 mi) NW of Port Moresby (National Capital) (pop: 283,700) --> 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.

Magnitude	Depth	Location	Source
6.5	33 km	near the north coast of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea	USGS

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Aftershocks

More info

Recorded aftershocks, latest first (4 quakes):

24 Jan 1981 06:07 UTC
| M 5.1 |
33 km (20.5 mi) depth
|
46 km (29 mi) distance
| USGS | Details
16 Jan 1981 06:20 UTC
| M 4.3 |
33 km (20.5 mi) depth
|
13 km (8 mi) distance
| USGS | Details
16 Jan 1981 05:21 UTC
| M 4.8 |
37 km (23 mi) depth
|
31 km (19 mi) distance
| USGS | Details
09 Oct 1980 15:14 UTC
| M 4.8 |
41 km (25.5 mi) depth
|
36 km (22 mi) distance
| USGS | Details

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