Moderate mag. 5.3 earthquake - Maluku Sea, 42 km northwest of Pulau Sedeng Island, Maluku Utara, Indonesia, on Tuesday, 12 August 1986 at 16:09 (GMT)

Moderate mag. 5.3 earthquake - Maluku Sea, 42 km northwest of Pulau Sedeng Island, Maluku Utara, Indonesia, on Tuesday, 12 August 1986 at 16:09 (GMT)

Moderate magnitude 5.3 earthquake at 33 km depth

Date & time: 12 Aug 1986 16:09:37 UTC
Magnitude: 5.3
Depth: 33.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 2.502°N / 127.457°E (Maluku Sea, Indonesia)
Nearest volcano: Tarakan (85 km / 53 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
106 km (66 mi) NW of Tobelo (Kabupaten Halmahera Utara) (pop: 10,000) --> See nearby quakes!
191 km (118 mi) N of Ternate (pop: 101,700) --> See nearby quakes!
197 km (122 mi) N of Sofifi (Kota Tidore Kepulauan) (pop: 36,200) --> See nearby quakes!
278 km (172 mi) ENE of Bitung (pop: 137,400) --> See nearby quakes!
298 km (185 mi) ENE of Laikit, Laikit II (Dimembe) (Kabupaten Minahasa Utara) (pop: 8,000) --> See nearby quakes!
311 km (193 mi) ENE of Manado (pop: 451,900) --> See nearby quakes!
313 km (194 mi) ENE of Tondano (Kabupaten Minahasa) (pop: 33,300) --> See nearby quakes!
323 km (201 mi) ENE of Tomohon (pop: 27,600) --> See nearby quakes!
475 km (295 mi) SSE of General Santos (Philippines) (pop: 679,600) --> See nearby quakes!
566 km (352 mi) NW of Sorong (pop: 125,500) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 5.6 x 1012 joules (1.56 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 1344 tons of TNT) 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 5.333 kmMolucca Sea (Indonesia)USGS
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.
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Aftershocks

More info
Recorded aftershocks, latest first (1 quakes):
  • 24 Aug 1986 09:37 UTC
    | M 4.2 |
    33 km (20.5 mi) depth
    |
    25 km (16 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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