Strong mag. 6.1 earthquake - Coral Sea, 20 km south of Pentecost Island, Penama Province, Vanuatu, on Tuesday, 9 December 2008 at 17:28 (GMT)

Strong mag. 6.1 earthquake - Coral Sea, 20 km south of Pentecost Island, Penama Province, Vanuatu, on Tuesday, 9 December 2008 at 17:28 (GMT)

Strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake at 224 km depth

Date & time: 9 Dec 2008 17:28:58 UTC
Magnitude: 6.1
Depth: 224.1 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 15.929°S / 168.173°E (Coral Sea, Vanuatu)
Nearest volcano: Ambrym (36 km / 22 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
83 km (52 mi) ENE of Lakatoro (pop: 705) --> See nearby quakes!
117 km (73 mi) ESE of Luganville (pop: 13,400) --> See nearby quakes!
154 km (96 mi) SE of Port-Olry (pop: 1,950) --> See nearby quakes!
202 km (125 mi) N of Port Vila (pop: 35,900) --> See nearby quakes!
238 km (148 mi) SSE of Sola (pop: 1,170) --> See nearby quakes!
419 km (260 mi) NNW of Isangel (pop: 1,440) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 8.9 x 1013 joules (24.8 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 21301 tons of TNT or 1.3 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 6.1224 kmVanuatuUSGS
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 (2 quakes):
  • 01 Apr 2009 18:31 UTC
    | M 4.6 |
    232.8 km (144.7 mi) depth
    |
    65 km (40 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 29 Dec 2008 05:14 UTC
    | M 4.5 |
    228.2 km (141.8 mi) depth
    |
    36 km (23 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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