Moderate mag. 4.8 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 61 km south of San Jose, Guatemala, on Sunday, 3 Jan 2021 5:52 am (GMT -6) -

Moderate magnitude 4.8 earthquake at 42 km depth

3 Jan 12:01 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 8 minutes.
3 Jan 13:45: Hypocenter depth recalculated from 10.0 to 42.0 km (from 6.2 to 26 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 25 km (16 mi) towards NE.

Update Sun, 3 Jan 2021, 12:06

Light magnitude 4.8 quake hits 82 km south of Puerto San José, Guatemala early morning

4.8 quake 3 Jan 5:52 am (GMT -6)

The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported a magnitude 4.8 quake in Guatemala near Puerto San José, Municipio de San José, Departamento de Escuintla, only 13 minutes ago. The earthquake hit early morning on Sunday 3 January 2021 at 5:52 am local time at a shallow depth of 10 km. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) which listed the quake at magnitude 4.6.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter.
Weak shaking might have been felt in Puerto San José (pop. 18,700) located 82 km from the epicenter, and Iztapa (pop. 4,000) 85 km away.
Other towns or cities near the epicenter where the quake might have been felt as very weak shaking include La Gomera (pop. 24,000) located 99 km from the epicenter.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.

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Earthquake data:

Date & time: 3 Jan 2021 11:52:58 UTC -
Local time at epicenter: Sunday, 3 Jan 2021 5:52 am (GMT -6)
Magnitude: 4.8
Depth: 42.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 13.38°N / 90.8°W

(North Pacific Ocean, Guatemala)
Nearest volcano: Tecuamburro (121 km / 75 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
61 km (38 mi) S of San Jose (Municipio de San José) (pop: 18,700) --> See nearby quakes!
83 km (51 mi) SSE of La Gomera (pop: 24,000) --> See nearby quakes!
102 km (64 mi) S of Escuintla (pop: 103,200) --> See nearby quakes!
126 km (78 mi) SSW of Villa Canales (pop: 122,200) --> See nearby quakes!
127 km (79 mi) S of Petapa (pop: 141,500) --> See nearby quakes!
129 km (80 mi) S of Villa Nueva (pop: 406,800) --> See nearby quakes!
141 km (87 mi) S of Mixco (pop: 473,100) --> See nearby quakes!
143 km (89 mi) S of Chimaltenango (pop: 82,400) --> See nearby quakes!
144 km (89 mi) SSW of Guatemala City (pop: 994,900) --> See nearby quakes!
178 km (110 mi) W of San Salvador (El Salvador) (pop: 526,000) --> See nearby quakes!

Weather at epicenter at time of quake:
Scattered Clouds

27.3°C (81 F), humidity: 79%, wind: 6 m/s (11 kts) from NNW

Primary data source: GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
Estimated released energy: 1 x 10¹² joules (278 megawatt hours, equivalent to 239 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.

Magnitude	Depth	Location	Source
M 4.8	42 km	- 71 km S of Puerto San José, Guatemala	GFZ
M 4.7	43 km	OFFSHORE GUATEMALA	EMSC
M 4.8	8 km	93 Km Al Sur De Sipacate, Guatemala	INETER
M 4.7	38 km	71 Km S of Puerto San José, Guatemala	USGS
M 4.7	38 km	71 Km S of Puerto San José, Guatemala	USGS

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User reports for this quake (3)

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.

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El Cajon, San Diego County, California (3419.3 km NW of epicenter) [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / complex motion difficult to describe / very short : Heard five very distinct heavy bop bop bops faintly in a quick procession, which startled me in the living room. Did not feel anything. But heard this within the wall of my where my front door is located, at the front side of my house. Startled me. As soon as the noise within that one entry wall stopped the as is seismograph I leave running 24/7 on loud for quakes all around the world started dinging! Not even a second after! The dogs which are never outside together on a cold night like this we | One user found this interesting.

3419.3 km NW of epicenter [Map] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / complex motion difficult to describe : Was picking up a few things in the living room when I heard this sort of very distinct detonation type of sound like when you would demo a building. Five distinct quick bop bop bop bops Like a faint pounding on a distant door. If it wasn't early in the in the morning here I probably would of never heard this noise. Was not felt definitely heard it. Could be heard within just the wall that our front door to the house was located. It scared me. The only reason I KNOW it was from this earthquake, i | One user found this interesting.

149.4 km NNE of epicenter [Map] / not felt (reported through our app)

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