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Very strong mag. 6.0 earthquake - South Pacific Ocean, New Zealand, on Friday, 5 Mar 2021 11:41 am (GMT +13)

Very strong mag. 6.0 Earthquake - Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand, on Friday, Mar 5, 2021, at 10:41 am (GMT +12)

This quake was likely an aftershock of the 8.1 quake Kermadec Islands, New Zealand, Mar 5, 2021 07:28 am (GMT +12), which had occurred 3 hours earlier.

A very strong magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in the South Pacific Ocean 140 km (87 mi) from  New Zealand in the morning of Friday, Mar 5, 2021 at 10.41 am local time (GMT +12). The quake had a very shallow depth of 10 km (6 mi) and was not felt (or at least not reported so).

Very strong mag. 6.0 Earthquake - Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand, on Friday, Mar 5, 2021, at 10:41 am (GMT +12) Very strong mag. 6.0 Earthquake - Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand, on Friday, Mar 5, 2021, at 10:41 am (GMT +12)
Very strong magnitude 6.0 earthquake at 10 km depth
4 Mar 22:55 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 14 minutes.
4 Mar 22:55: Epicenter location corrected by 29 km (18 mi) towards SW.
4 Mar 22:59: Magnitude recalculated from 5.5 to 6.0. Epicenter location corrected by 1.5 km (0.9 mi) towards SW.

Earthquake details

Date & timeMar 4, 2021 22:41:06 UTC
Local time at epicenterFriday, Mar 5, 2021, at 10:41 am (GMT +12)
StatusPreliminary (automatic detection)
Magnitude6.0
Depth10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude28.38°S / 176.82°W South Pacific Ocean, New Zealand
Seismic antipode28.38°N / 3.18°E Algeria
Shaking intensityStrong shaking near epicenter
Felt0 reports
Primary data sourceGFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
Nearest volcanoRaoul Island (146 km / 91 mi)
Weather at epicenter at time of quakeLight Rain 24.5°C (76 F), humidity: 84%, wind: 8 m/s (16 kts) from NNE
Estimated seismic energy released6.3 x 1013 joules (17.5 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 15080 tons of TNT or 0.9 atomic bombs!) | about seismic energy
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Nearby places

User-reports for this quake

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User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
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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
2021-03-4
Epicenter Agency
6.0 10 km
6.2 mi
(*)
22:41:06 Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences)
5.8 10 km
6.2 mi
(*)
22:41:04 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION, New Zealand
16 km (9.9 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ
EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre)
5.2 10 km
6.2 mi
(*)
22:41:01 Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand
68 km (42 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ
GeoAu (Geoscience Australia )
5.2 10 km
6.2 mi
(*)
22:40:29 Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand
22 km (14 mi) epicenter difference with GFZ
USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Notes:
(*) A depth given as 10 km often means that the the depth of the quake could not determined with sufficient accuracy.

Seismograms

Seismic station: Raoul, Kermadec Islands (RAO/IU network) | Distance from quake: 145 km / 90 mi | Show on map | Station Info
Seismic station Raoul, Kermadec Islands: 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: 0.1-10.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool
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Earthquake statistics

Average number of earthquakes

Based on data from the past 14 years and our earthquake archive back to 1900, there are about 46 quakes on average per year in the area near the epicenter of this quake (within 100 km/61 mi):
  • Mag. 7 or higher: 0.04 quakes per year (or 1 quake every 25 years)
  • Mag. 6 or higher: 0.48 quakes per year (or 1 quake every 2.1 years)
  • Mag. 5 or higher: 10.4 quakes per year
  • Mag. 4 or higher: 42 quakes per year (or 3.5 quakes per month)
  • Mag. 3 or higher: 42 quakes per year (or 3.5 quakes per month)
  • Mag. 2 or higher: 42 quakes per year (or 3.5 quakes per month)
The area where this quake occurred has a very high level of seismic activity. It has had at least 5 quakes above magnitude 7 since 1900, which suggests that larger earthquakes of this size occur infrequently, probably on average approximately every 20 to 25 years.

Number of quakes per year

Previous quakes in the same area of this earthquake

Map of earlier quakes in the area of this quake

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