Moderate mag. 5.7 earthquake - Tonga on Friday, 20 May 1988 at 09:17 (GMT)

Moderate mag. 5.7 earthquake - Tonga on Friday, 20 May 1988 at 09:17 (GMT)

Moderate magnitude 5.7 earthquake at 101 km depth

Date & time: 20 May 1988 09:17:27 UTC
Magnitude: 5.7
Depth: 100.5 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 15.241°S / 173.892°W (Tonga)
Nearest volcano: West Mata (22 km / 14 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
80 km (50 mi) N of Hihifo (pop: 815) --> See nearby quakes!
234 km (146 mi) SW of Asau (Samoa) (pop: 6,640) --> See nearby quakes!
254 km (158 mi) SW of Mulifanua (Samoa) (pop: 4,510) --> See nearby quakes!
277 km (172 mi) SW of Apia (Samoa) (pop: 40,400) --> See nearby quakes!
329 km (204 mi) SE of Mata-Utu (Hahake, Wallis & Futuna) (pop: 1,200) --> See nearby quakes!
356 km (221 mi) WSW of Tāfuna (Tualauta, American Samoa) (pop: 11,000) --> See nearby quakes!
359 km (223 mi) WSW of Pago Pago (Ma'Oputasi, American Samoa) (pop: 11,500) --> See nearby quakes!
379 km (236 mi) N of Neiafu (pop: 4,320) --> See nearby quakes!
599 km (372 mi) NW of Alofi (Niue) (pop: 624) --> See nearby quakes!
670 km (417 mi) NNE of Nuku'alofa (pop: 22,400) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 2.2 x 1013 joules (6.22 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 5351 tons of TNT or 0.3 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.
MagnitudeDepthLocationSource
M 5.7101 kmTongaUSGS
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

Moderate mag. 5.7 earthquake - Tonga on Friday, 20 May 1988 at 09:17 (GMT)
Please check again later while we are collecting more data.
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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

Moderate mag. 5.7 earthquake - Tonga on Friday, 20 May 1988 at 09:17 (GMT)
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