Strong mag. 5.4 earthquake - Halmahera Sea, 15 km east of Pulau Jojikula Island, Maluku Utara, Indonesia, on Monday, 21 January 1985 at 04:41 (GMT)

Strong mag. 5.4 earthquake - Halmahera Sea, 15 km east of Pulau Jojikula Island, Maluku Utara, Indonesia, on Monday, 21 January 1985 at 04:41 (GMT)

Strong magnitude 5.4 earthquake at 33 km depth

Date & time: 21 Jan 1985 04:41:27 UTC
Magnitude: 5.4
Depth: 33.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 1.138°S / 128.558°E (Halmahera Sea, Indonesia)
Nearest volcano: Bibinoi (102 km / 63 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
236 km (147 mi) SSE of Sofifi (Kota Tidore Kepulauan) (pop: 36,200) --> See nearby quakes!
248 km (154 mi) N of Amahai (pop: 47,700) --> See nearby quakes!
251 km (156 mi) SSE of Ternate (pop: 101,700) --> See nearby quakes!
288 km (179 mi) N of Ambon City (pop: 355,600) --> See nearby quakes!
302 km (188 mi) W of Sorong (pop: 125,500) --> See nearby quakes!
325 km (202 mi) S of Tobelo (Kabupaten Halmahera Utara) (pop: 10,000) --> See nearby quakes!
473 km (294 mi) SE of Bitung (pop: 137,400) --> See nearby quakes!
488 km (303 mi) ESE of Tondano (Kabupaten Minahasa) (pop: 33,300) --> See nearby quakes!
499 km (310 mi) ESE of Tomohon (pop: 27,600) --> See nearby quakes!
505 km (314 mi) SE of Manado (pop: 451,900) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 7.9 x 1012 joules (2.21 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 1898 tons of TNT or 0.1 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 5.433 kmKepulauan Obi, IndonesiaUSGS
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

More info
Recorded aftershocks, latest first (2 quakes):
  • 25 Jan 1985 12:38 UTC
    | M 5.0 |
    63.7 km (39.6 mi) depth
    |
    12 km (8 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 21 Jan 1985 19:29 UTC
    | M 4.9 |
    33 km (20.5 mi) depth
    |
    18 km (11 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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