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Light mag. 3.9 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 26 km southeast of Ofunato, Ōfunato-shi, Iwate, Japan, on Thursday, Dec 8, 2022 at 12:56 pm (GMT +9) -

Light magnitude 3.9 earthquake at 49 km depth

8 Dec 04:03 UTC: First to report: NIED after 6 minutes.

Earthquake details

Date & time	Dec 8, 2022 03:56:45 UTC -
Local time at epicenter	Thursday, Dec 8, 2022 at 12:56 pm (GMT +9)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	3.9
Depth	48.9 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	38.915°N / 141.938°E (North Pacific Ocean, Japan)
Antipode	38.915°S / 38.062°W
Shaking intensity	Weak shaking near epicenter
Felt	0 reports
Primary data source	NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience)
Nearest volcano	Kurikoma (99 km / 62 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	26 km (16 mi) SE of Ofunato (pop: 35,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 41 km (25 mi) S of Kamaishi (pop: 43,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 70 km (43 mi) E of Ichinoseki (pop: 63,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 74 km (46 mi) ESE of Mizusawa (pop: 61,300) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 78 km (49 mi) NE of Ishinomaki (pop: 117,200) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 82 km (51 mi) ESE of Kitakami (pop: 93,900) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 118 km (73 mi) NE of Sendai (pop: 1,063,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 410 km (255 mi) NNE of Tokyo (pop: 8,336,600) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 82 km (51 mi) NNE of Tashiro Jima Island (pop: 100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Clear Sky 6.5°C (44 F), humidity: 60%, wind: 11 m/s (22 kts) from WNW
Estimated seismic energy released	4.5 x 10¹⁰ joules (12.4 megawatt hours, equivalent to 10.7 tons of TNT) \| about seismic energy

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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.

Mag.	Depth	Location	Source
3.9	49 km	Japan: KINKAZAN REGION	NIED
3.7	50 km	NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN	EMSC
3.7	50 km	Near East Coast of Honshu, Japan	RaspberryShake

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Seismograms

Seismic station: Miyagi Marumori (JMM/JP network) | Distance from quake: 153 km / 95 mi | Show on map | Station Info

Seismic station Miyagi Marumori: vertical movement plot around time of quake (source: IRIS/BUD)

Seismogram (vertical component) around time of quake. Thin dotted red line indicates time of quake. Seismic waves arrive some time later, depending on distance. Bandpass filter applied: 0.5-10.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool

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.

Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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