Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - West Sepik Province, 109 km west of Wewak, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, on Monday, 16 September 2002 at 13:23 (GMT)

Very strong mag. 6.3 earthquake - West Sepik Province, 109 km west of Wewak, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, on Monday, 16 September 2002 at 13:23 (GMT)

Very strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake at 10 km depth

Date & time: 16 Sep 2002 13:23:00 UTC
Magnitude: 6.3
Depth: 10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 3.313°S / 142.679°E (West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea)
Nearest volcano: Kairinu (76 km / 47 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
42 km (26 mi) ESE of Aitape (Sandaun) (pop: 5,550) --> See nearby quakes!
102 km (63 mi) N of Ambunti (East Sepik) (pop: 2,070) --> See nearby quakes!
109 km (68 mi) WNW of Wewak (East Sepik) (pop: 18,200) --> See nearby quakes!
168 km (105 mi) ESE of Vanimo (Sandaun) (pop: 11,200) --> See nearby quakes!
168 km (105 mi) ESE of Vanimo (Sandaun) (pop: 11,200) --> See nearby quakes!
234 km (146 mi) ESE of Jayapura (Papua, Indonesia) (pop: 134,900) --> See nearby quakes!
241 km (150 mi) ESE of Abepura (Papua, Indonesia) (pop: 62,200) --> See nearby quakes!
331 km (206 mi) NNW of Mt Hagen (Dei District, Western Highlands) (pop: 33,600) --> See nearby quakes!
333 km (207 mi) NNW of Mendi (Southern Highlands) (pop: 26,300) --> See nearby quakes!
845 km (525 mi) NW of Port Moresby (National Capital) (pop: 283,700) --> 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!) 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
6.310 kmnear the north coast of New Guinea, Papua New GuineaUSGS
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 (5 quakes):

Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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