Strong mag. 5.6 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 99 km east of Miyako, Iwate, Japan, on Saturday, 2 December 1989 at 12:15 (GMT)

Strong mag. 5.6 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 99 km east of Miyako, Iwate, Japan, on Saturday, 2 December 1989 at 12:15 (GMT)

Strong magnitude 5.6 earthquake at 35 km depth

Date & time: 2 Dec 1989 12:15:17 UTC
Magnitude: 5.6
Depth: 34.5 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 39.536°N / 143.089°E (North Pacific Ocean, Japan)
Nearest volcano: Nanashigure (179 km / 111 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
98 km (61 mi) E of Yamada (Shimohei-gun) (pop: 20,100) --> See nearby quakes!
99 km (62 mi) E of Miyako (pop: 51,700) --> See nearby quakes!
104 km (65 mi) E of Ōtsuchi (Kamihei-gun) (pop: 16,500) --> See nearby quakes!
109 km (68 mi) ENE of Kamaishi (pop: 43,100) --> See nearby quakes!
129 km (80 mi) ENE of Ōfunato (pop: 35,400) --> See nearby quakes!
136 km (84 mi) E of Tōno (pop: 26,800) --> See nearby quakes!
167 km (104 mi) E of Morioka (pop: 295,200) --> See nearby quakes!
173 km (107 mi) SE of Hachinohe (pop: 239,000) --> See nearby quakes!
419 km (260 mi) SSE of Sapporo (pop: 1,883,000) --> See nearby quakes!
522 km (324 mi) NNE of Tokyo (pop: 8,336,600) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 1.6 x 1013 joules (4.4 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 3788 tons of TNT or 0.2 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 5.635 kmoff the east coast of Honshu, JapanUSGS
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 (10 quakes):
  • 10 Jan 1990 03:11 UTC
    | M 5.8 |
    36.6 km (22.7 mi) depth
    |
    27 km (16 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 10 Jan 1990 03:09 UTC
    | M 5.7 |
    33.7 km (20.9 mi) depth
    |
    21 km (13 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 17 Dec 1989 08:11 UTC
    | M 5.2 |
    20.3 km (12.6 mi) depth
    |
    21 km (13 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 16 Dec 1989 12:46 UTC
    | M 4.9 |
    26.7 km (16.6 mi) depth
    |
    38 km (24 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 04 Dec 1989 09:18 UTC
    | M 4.3 |
    32.9 km (20.4 mi) depth
    |
    30 km (19 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 02 Dec 1989 16:05 UTC
    | M 4.9 |
    26.5 km (16.5 mi) depth
    |
    7 km (4 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 02 Dec 1989 13:36 UTC
    | M 4.5 |
    20.4 km (12.7 mi) depth
    |
    18 km (11 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 02 Dec 1989 12:50 UTC
    | M 4.6 |
    22.6 km (14 mi) depth
    |
    27 km (17 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 02 Dec 1989 12:20 UTC
    | M 5.4 |
    33 km (20.5 mi) depth
    |
    37 km (23 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 02 Dec 1989 12:19 UTC
    | M 4.1 |
    33 km (20.5 mi) depth
    |
    20 km (12 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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