How frequent are earthquakes in the area near the epicenter of this quake (within 100 km/61 mi)?

Q: How frequent are earthquakes in the area near the epicenter of this quake (within 100 km/61 mi)?

The area where this quake occurred has a very high level of seismic activity. Based on data from the past 14 years and our earthquake archive back to 1900, there are about 45 quakes on average per year in the area near the epicenter of this quake (within 100 km/61 mi). It has had at least 8 quakes above magnitude 7 since 1900, which suggests that larger earthquakes of this size occur infrequently, probably on average approximately every 15 to 20 years.

Moderate Mag. 5.7 Earthquake - Southeast of Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, on Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020, at 07:44 pm (GMT +11) -

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Moderate mag. 5.7 earthquake - Southeast of Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia on Wednesday, 16 September 2020 - information

A strong magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurred in the South Pacific Ocean near the coast of New Caledonia in the late afternoon of Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020 at 7.44 pm local time (GMT +11). The quake had a moderate depth of 154 km (96 mi) and was not felt (or at least not reported so).

Moderate magnitude 5.7 earthquake at 154 km depth

16 Sep 08:53 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 9 minutes.
16 Sep 08:55: Magnitude recalculated from 5.8 to 6.0. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 161.0 to 154.0 km (from 100 to 96 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 3.3 km (2 mi) towards WSW.
16 Sep 10:26: Magnitude recalculated from 6.0 to 5.7.

Earthquake details

Date & time	Sep 16, 2020 08:44:33 UTC
Local time at epicenter	Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020, at 07:44 pm (GMT +11)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	5.7
Depth	154 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	22.31°S / 171.65°E South Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia
Seismic antipode	22.31°N / 8.35°W Mauritania
Shaking intensity	IV Light shaking near epicenter
Felt	0 reports
Primary data source	GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
Nearest volcano	Matthew Island (34 km / 21 mi)
Weather at epicenter at time of quake
Estimated seismic energy released	2.2 x 10¹³ joules (6.22 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 5351 tons of TNT or 0.3 atomic bombs!) \| about seismic energy

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Most recent quakes Top 20 past 24 hrs Quakes in New Caledonia

Nearby places

The closest larger town where the quake might have been felt is Isangel, a town with 1,400 inhabitants in Vanuatu, in 394 km (245 mi) distance northwest of the epicenter. People likely experienced weak shaking there.
The following table shows some of the places that might have been affected (or not) by the shaking.

Distance	Place	Max. shaking intensity(*)	Region	Country
394 km (245 mi) NW of epicenter	Isangel (pop: 1,440)	III: Weak	Tafea	Vanuatu
398 km (247 mi) W of epicenter	Tadine (pop: 7,490)	III: Weak	Mare, Loyalty Islands	New Caledonia

Notes:
(*) Shaking intensity according to the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (MMI) and estimated using seismic models.

User-reports for this quake

There are no user reports for this quake yet.

If you felt it, be the first to report it!

Compare Quake Data

Data for the same earthquake as reported by different agencies

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	Time GMT 2020-09-16	Epicenter	Agency
5.7	154 km 96 mi	08:44:33	Southeast of Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia	GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
5.6	124 km 77 mi	08:44:30	Southeast Of Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia 6.6 km (4.1 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ	EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre)
5.6	124 km 77 mi	08:44:31	Southeast of Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia 12 km (7.3 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ	GeoAu (Geoscience Australia )
6.2	151 km 94 mi	08:44:33	Southeast of Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia 4.5 km (2.8 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ	BMKG (Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia)
5.6	119 km 74 mi	08:44:30	Southeast of the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia 16 km (9.7 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ	USGS (United States Geological Survey)

Seismograms

Seismic station: Monasavu, Fiji (MSVF/II network) | Distance from quake: 839 km / 522 mi | Show on map | Station Info

Seismic station Monasavu, Fiji: 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: 0.02-5.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool

Aftershocks for this quake

No aftershocks have been recorded so far. When aftershocks are detected, we will update this section.

What are aftershocks?

Larger earthquakes (above magnitude 5 or so) such as this one are usually followed by smaller ones known as aftershocks that occur in the same area during the days, weeks, months or even years after the main shock.

[More info]

What about this quake?

Based on its magnitude, the fault that was active during the quake likely ruptured beneath a surface of approx. 50 km² (=19 sqare miles) as a first-order estimate. The length of the rupture zone thus was probably around 12 km (8 mi).

[More info]

Recorded aftershocks, latest first (0 quake)

Date and Time GMT	Mag Depth	Distance	Region	Details
Sep 16, 2020 07:44 pm (GMT +11) 4 years ago	5.7 154 km	0 km - This quake	South Pacific Ocean, 398 km E of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia Main Shock (this quake)	More

Map of aftershocks

Earthquake statistics

Average number of earthquakes

Based on data from the past 14 years and our earthquake archive back to 1900, there are about 45 quakes on average per year in the area near the epicenter of this quake (within 100 km/61 mi):

Mag. 7 or higher: 0.06 quakes per year (or 1 quake every 15.6 years)
Mag. 6 or higher: 0.44 quakes per year (or 1 quake every 2.3 years)
Mag. 5 or higher: 10.4 quakes per year
Mag. 4 or higher: 36.5 quakes per year (or 3 quakes per month)
Mag. 3 or higher: 36.6 quakes per year (or 3.1 quakes per month)
Mag. 2 or higher: 36.6 quakes per year (or 3.1 quakes per month)

The area where this quake occurred has a very high level of seismic activity. It has had at least 8 quakes above magnitude 7 since 1900, which suggests that larger earthquakes of this size occur infrequently, probably on average approximately every 15 to 20 years.

Number of quakes per year

Previous quakes in the same area of this earthquake

Map to embed or share

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