Moderate mag. 5.3 earthquake - Coral Sea, 631 km north of Port Vila, Shefa Province, Vanuatu, on Thursday, 8 October 2009 at 21:37 (GMT)

Moderate mag. 5.3 earthquake - Coral Sea, 631 km north of Port Vila, Shefa Province, Vanuatu, on Thursday, 8 October 2009 at 21:37 (GMT)

Moderate magnitude 5.3 earthquake at 35 km depth

Date & time: 8 Oct 2009 21:37:17 UTC
Magnitude: 5.3
Depth: 35.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 12.438°S / 166.219°E (Coral Sea, Vanuatu)
Nearest volcano: Ureparapara (170 km / 106 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
196 km (122 mi) SSE of Lata (Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands) (pop: 553) --> See nearby quakes!
215 km (134 mi) NW of Sola (pop: 1,170) --> See nearby quakes!
304 km (189 mi) NNW of Port-Olry (pop: 1,950) --> See nearby quakes!
358 km (222 mi) NNW of Luganville (pop: 13,400) --> See nearby quakes!
423 km (263 mi) NNW of Norsup (pop: 3,000) --> See nearby quakes!
631 km (392 mi) NNW of Port Vila (pop: 35,900) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 5.6 x 1012 joules (1.56 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 1344 tons of TNT) 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 5.335 kmSanta Cruz Islands (Vanuatu)USGS
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):
  • 23 Nov 2009 18:36 UTC
    | M 5.7 |
    35 km (21.7 mi) depth
    |
    20 km (12 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 14 Nov 2009 09:50 UTC
    | M 5.6 |
    19.1 km (11.9 mi) depth
    |
    27 km (16 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 19 Oct 2009 10:48 UTC
    | M 5.1 |
    35 km (21.7 mi) depth
    |
    12 km (7 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 15 Oct 2009 08:50 UTC
    | M 5.2 |
    35 km (21.7 mi) depth
    |
    24 km (15 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 14 Oct 2009 00:55 UTC
    | M 5.4 |
    24.6 km (15.3 mi) depth
    |
    24 km (15 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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