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Light mag. 4.6 earthquake - South Pacific Ocean, Tonga, on Saturday, Mar 18, 2023 at 9:32 am (GMT +13) -

Light magnitude 4.6 earthquake at 156 km depth

17 Mar 21:01 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 29 minutes.
17 Mar 21:14: Now using data updates from USGS
... [show all] ...
17 Mar 23:18: Hypocenter depth recalculated from 156.4 to 156.3 km (from 97 to 97 mi).

Earthquake details

Date & time	Mar 17, 2023 20:32:04 UTC -
Local time at epicenter	Saturday, Mar 18, 2023 at 9:32 am (GMT +13)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	4.6
Depth	156.3 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	23.3535°S / 177.0585°W (South Pacific Ocean, Tonga)
Antipode	23.354°N / 2.941°E
Shaking intensity	Very weak shaking
Felt	0 reports
Primary data source	USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Nearest volcano	Unnamed 24.8°S/177.02°W (161 km / 100 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	310 km (193 mi) SW of Haveluloto (pop: 3,420) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 312 km (194 mi) SW of Nukalofa (Nuku'alofa) (pop: 22,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 312 km (194 mi) SW of Nuku‘alofa (pop: 22,400) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 312 km (194 mi) SW of ‘Ohonua (Ohonua) (pop: 1,240) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 321 km (199 mi) SW of Kolonga (pop: 1,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 483 km (300 mi) SW of Bangai (Pangai) (pop: 1,740) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 310 km (192 mi) SW of Amsterdam Island (pop: 75,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Light Rain 25.9°C (79 F), humidity: 78%, wind: 11 m/s (21 kts) from E
Estimated seismic energy released	5 x 10¹¹ joules (139 megawatt hours, equivalent to 120 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
4.6	156 km	Tonga: South of the Fiji Islands	USGS
4.6	156 km	Tonga: South of Fiji Islands	RaspberryShake
4.6	182 km	Tonga: 4.6 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS	EMSC
4.5	190 km	Tonga: South of Fiji Islands	GFZ
4.6	10 km	Tonga: South Of Fiji Islands	IRIS

Most recent quakes Top 20 past 24 hrs Quakes in Tonga

Seismograms

Seismic station: Folaha (Nukuhetulu) (TNG1/YC network) | Distance from quake: 309 km / 192 mi | Show on map | Station Info

Seismic station Folaha (Nukuhetulu): 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: 0.2-10.0 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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