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Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - Costa Rica on Saturday, March 16, 1991 at 06:02 GMT

Very strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake at 33 km depth

Earthquake details

Date & time	Mar 16, 1991 06:02:10 UTC
Local time at epicenter
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	6.3
Depth	33.3 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	10.174°N / 85.184°W (Costa Rica)
Antipode	10.174°S / 94.816°E
Shaking intensity	Strong shaking near epicenter
Felt	0 reports
Primary data source	USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Nearest volcano	Cerro Chopo (35 km / 22 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	16 km (10 mi) N of Nandayure (pop: 1,650) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 29 km (18 mi) E of Nicoya (pop: 15,300) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 30 km (19 mi) SSW of Canas (Cañas) (pop: 20,300) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 44 km (27 mi) WNW of Puntarenas (pop: 35,700) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 49 km (31 mi) WNW of Chacarita (pop: 26,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 60 km (37 mi) WNW of Esparza (Espíritu Santo) (pop: 15,600) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 84 km (53 mi) WSW of Ciudad Quesada (Barrio San Martín) (pop: 27,300) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 87 km (54 mi) S of San Jose (Upala) (pop: 31,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 117 km (73 mi) W of San Francisco (pop: 55,900) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 123 km (77 mi) WNW of San Jose (pop: 335,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake
Estimated seismic energy released	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.	Depth	Location	Source
6.3	33 km	Costa Rica	USGS

Note: for quakes of 2012 and earlier, our database often contains only records from USGS.

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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.

Aftershocks

[More info]

Recorded aftershocks, latest first (1 quake)

Date and time	Mag Depth	Location	Details
Sep 12, 1991 05:11 31 years ago	4.3 61 km	36 km N of Puntarenas, Costa Rica	More

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