Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - Virginia, Departamento de Rivas, 64 km southeast of Managua, Nicaragua, on Monday, December 16, 1985 at 02:44 (GMT)

Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - Virginia, Departamento de Rivas, 64 km southeast of Managua, Nicaragua, on Monday, December 16, 1985 at 02:44 (GMT)

Very strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake at 22 km depth

1 Jan 00:00 UTC: First to report: USGS after 30 seconds.
Date & time: Dec 16, 1985 02:44:36 UTC
Magnitude: 6.3
Depth: 22.1 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 11.725°N / 85.838°W (Departamento de Rivas, Nicaragua)
Antipode: 11.725°S / 94.162°E
Nearest volcano: Zapatera (2 km / 1 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
24 km (15 mi) E of Nandaime (Granada) (pop: 20,800) --> See nearby quakes!
26 km (16 mi) SSE of Granada (pop: 89,400) --> See nearby quakes!
32 km (20 mi) N of Nicaragua (Rivas) (pop: 30,000) --> See nearby quakes!
39 km (25 mi) ESE of Masatepe (Masaya) (pop: 21,500) --> See nearby quakes!
45 km (28 mi) ESE of San Marcos (Carazo) (pop: 23,300) --> See nearby quakes!
46 km (29 mi) ESE of Diriamba (Carazo) (pop: 35,000) --> See nearby quakes!
60 km (37 mi) SSE of Tipitapa (Managua) (pop: 50,000) --> See nearby quakes!
64 km (40 mi) SE of Managua (pop: 973,100) --> See nearby quakes!
138 km (86 mi) SE of Leon (León) (pop: 144,500) --> See nearby quakes!
277 km (172 mi) NW of San Jose (San José, Costa Rica) (pop: 335,000) --> 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
6.322 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
Mar 4, 1986 07:27
36 years ago
4.5

187 km		Virginia, Granada, 58 km SE of Managua, NicaraguaMore
Dec 28, 1985 21:37
36 years ago
4.2

128 km		Departamento de Rivas, 47 km SE of Granada, NicaraguaMore

Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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