Shallow M6.0 earthquake hits Prince Edward Islands region
Image credit: TW/SAM, Google
A shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit Prince Edward Islands region at 20:05 UTC on December 18, 2021. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.1 at a depth of 2 km (1.2 miles).
The epicenter was located about 1 600 km (992 miles) NNW of Port Alfred, South Africa.
There are no people living within 100 km (62 miles).
The USGS issued a Green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage.
There is no tsunami threat from this earthquake.
Image credit: TW/SAM, Google
Regional seismicity
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Published in the last 24 hours
- Antarctic moss began growing again after at least 1,530 years frozen in permafrost Epicenter
- Forecasters say this winter’s El Niño could reach historic strength, but the last one that big, nicknamed Godzilla in 2015–16, left Los Angeles with about two-thirds of its normal rain while storms pounded the Pacific Northwest Epicenter
- Winds circling the North Pole have slowed sharply this month, the same kind of disruption that in January 2019 split the polar vortex and sent Chicago to minus 23°F, cold enough that rail crews ran flames along the tracks Epicenter
- In April 2014, golden-winged warblers in the mountains of Tennessee, songbirds weighing about as much as four dimes, fled their breeding grounds a day or two before a tornado outbreak and flew hundreds of miles south, while the scientists tracking them sheltered in a Waffle House Epicenter
