Moderate mag. 5.1 earthquake - Limarí Province, 50 km south of Ovalle, Provincia de Limari, Coquimbo Region, Chile, on Saturday, 16 Jan 2021 12:53 am (GMT -3) -

Moderate mag. 5.1 earthquake - Limarí Province, 50 km south of Ovalle, Provincia de Limari, Coquimbo Region, Chile, on Saturday, 16 Jan 2021 12:53 am (GMT -3)

Moderate magnitude 5.1 earthquake at 67 km depth

16 Jan 03:56 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 3 minutes.
16 Jan 04:00: Magnitude recalculated from 5.3 to 5.0. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 25.0 to 59.0 km (from 15.5 to 37 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 30 km (19 mi) towards ESE.
16 Jan 04:20: Now using data updates from GUG (U. Chile)
16 Jan 04:40: Hypocenter depth recalculated from 65.2 to 66.6 km (from 41 to 41 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 1.4 km (0.9 mi) towards W.
Update Sat, 16 Jan 2021, 04:03
Significant earthquake of magnitude 5.0 just reported 47 km southwest of Ovalle, Chile
5.0 quake 16 Jan 12:53 am (GMT -3)
5.0 quake 16 Jan 12:53 am (GMT -3)
Just 9 minutes ago, a 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Ovalle, Provincia de Limarí, Coquimbo Region, Chile. The tremor was recorded after midnight on Saturday 16 January 2021 at 12:53 am local time, at a moderately shallow depth of 59 km below the surface.
The event was filed by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the first seismological agency to report it.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) which listed the quake at magnitude 5.4. A third agency, INPRES, reported the same quake at magnitude 5.3.
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 Ovalle (pop. 77,100) located 47 km from the epicenter, and Monte Patria (pop. 13,900) 53 km away.
Other towns or cities near the epicenter where the quake might have been felt as very weak shaking include La Serena (pop. 154,500) located 122 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: 16 Jan 2021 03:53:35 UTC -
Local time at epicenter: Saturday, 16 Jan 2021 12:53 am (GMT -3)
Magnitude: 5.1
Depth: 66.6 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 31.023°S / 71.388°W (Limarí Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile)
Nearby towns and cities:
50 km (31 mi) SSW of Ovalle (Coquimbo Region) (pop: 77,100) --> See nearby quakes!
55 km (34 mi) SW of Monte Patria (Coquimbo Region) (pop: 13,900) --> See nearby quakes!
71 km (44 mi) NNW of Illapel (Choapa, Coquimbo Region) (pop: 22,800) --> See nearby quakes!
93 km (58 mi) NNW of Salamanca (Choapa, Coquimbo Region) (pop: 13,300) --> See nearby quakes!
119 km (74 mi) S of Coquimbo (Coquimbo Region) (pop: 161,300) --> See nearby quakes!
125 km (78 mi) S of La Serena (Coquimbo Region) (pop: 154,500) --> See nearby quakes!
125 km (78 mi) S of La Serena (Coquimbo Region) (pop: 154,500) --> See nearby quakes!
223 km (139 mi) N of Viña del Mar (Valparaíso) (pop: 294,600) --> See nearby quakes!
280 km (174 mi) NNW of Santiago de Chile (Santiago Metropolitan) (pop: 4,837,300) --> See nearby quakes!
298 km (185 mi) NNW of Puente Alto (Santiago Metropolitan) (pop: 510,400) --> See nearby quakes!
Weather at epicenter at time of quake:
Clear Sky 13.4°C (56 F), humidity: 71%, wind: 3 m/s (5 kts) from S
Primary data source: GUG (U. Chile)
Estimated released energy: 2.8 x 1012 joules (783 megawatt hours, equivalent to 674 tons of TNT) More info
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If you felt this quake (or if you were near the epicenter), please share your experience and submit a short "I felt it" report! Other users would love to hear about it!
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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 5.167 km25 Km Al SO De Punitaqui, ChileGUG (U. Chile)
M 5.262 kmCHILE (Argentina)INPRES
M 5.161 kmCOQUIMBO, CHILEEMSC
M 5.062 km54 Km SSW of Ovalle, ChileUSGS
M 5.159 kmNear Coast of Central ChileGFZ
M 5.254 kmNear Coast of Central ChileGeoAu
M 5.362 kmNear Coast of Central ChileUSP

User reports for this quake (10)

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
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Buin (307.3 km S of epicenter) [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s : Mi casa es de madera y solo parte de ella crujió levemente como si alguien se hubiera apoyado con fuerza. (reported through our app)
129.6 km NNE of epicenter [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II)
267.3 km SSE of epicenter [Map] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s (reported through our app)
226.6 km S of epicenter [Map] / not felt / vibration and rolling (reported through our app)
662.6 km ESE of epicenter [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s (reported through our app)
355 km S of epicenter [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s (reported through our app)
305.4 km S of epicenter [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) (reported through our app)
224.6 km S of epicenter [Map] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) (reported through our app)
Canela alta / Light shaking (MMI IV)
Combarbala / Strong shaking (MMI VI) : Estaba durmiendo y no encontraba la luz
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Aftershocks

Please check again later while we are collecting more data.
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