Strong earthquakes hit Vanuatu with strongest reaching M 6.9
Image credit: TW
Several strong earthquakes was reported today in Vanuatu, east of Australia. The strongest reported so far was magnitude 6.9 with epicentre 124 km west of Port-Vila and depth of 10.1 km at 13:34 UTC, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. There was no damage reported. The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) issued green tsunami alert. Earthquake-report.com is evaluating this earthquake as moderately dangerous for 2 reasons: a) the epicenter was far out in the sea (updated to 122 km from Port-Vila) and b) Vanuatu islanders are fairly used to big earthqaukes and even bigger ones than this one have resulted in no damage.
It started yesterday with 4.7 magnitude north of Port-Vila at depth of 240 km and continued today with 147 km deep, 4.8 magnitute, earthquake at 10:44 UTC.
| USGS reports | |||||
| MAG | Time/Date | Latitude deg. | Longitude deg | DEPTH | Region |
| 5.5 | 2012/02/02 17:27:07 | -17.963 | 167.209 | 22.8 | VANUATU |
| 5.3 | 2012/02/02 13:57:08 | -17.462 | 167.169 | 10.0 | VANUATU |
| 4.9 | 2012/02/02 13:53:45 | -17.597 | 167.191 | 13.4 | VANUATU |
| 6.9 | 2012/02/02 13:34:39 | -17.810 | 167.149 | 10.1 | VANUATU |
| 4.8 | 2012/02/02 10:44:08 | -17.872 | 168.434 | 147.2 | VANUATU |
USGS report of very strong 6.9 magnitude eq, Feb. 02, 2012
| Magnitude | 6.9 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 17.810°S, 167.149°E |
| Depth | 10.1 km (6.3 miles) |
| Region | VANUATU |
| Distances | 124 km (77 miles) W of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu 251 km (155 miles) S of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu 294 km (182 miles) NW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu 1803 km (1120 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 15 km (9.3 miles); depth +/- 2.8 km (1.7 miles) |
| Parameters | NST=114, Nph=114, Dmin=477.6 km, Rmss=0.9 sec, Gp= 32°, M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7 |
| Source |
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Seismic hazard map of Vanuatu
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
mag 2.8
? lancaster, california 2012-01-31 20:19:24 34.586 -117.826 ?