Magnitude6.9

Reviewed by USGSJapan123y ago

M6.9 earthquake 31 km SSW of Hikari, Japan

Friday, June 2, 1905, 05:39:39 UTC · 33.715°N, 131.759°E

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck 31 km SSW of Hikari, Japan on Friday, June 2, 1905, 05:39:39 UTC, at a depth of 60.0 km (shallow). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.

Magnitude
6.9
Strong · mw
Depth
60 km
Shallow
Felt reports
0
Did You Feel It?
Est. shaking
—
No ShakeMap
PAGER alert
None
Not issued
Tsunami
No flag
USGS feed

Outlined circle: this earthquake

In context

How big was it, and why here?

Energy released

349 kilotons of TNT

That is about 23 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 733 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.

Tectonic setting

207 km

from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Amur and Okinawa plates. Earthquakes this far from a boundary happen on faults inside a plate, often less frequently but sometimes strongly.

Depth: shallow

60 km

Shallow earthquakes (under 70 km) produce the strongest surface shaking for their size, so they are the ones most likely to cause damage near the epicenter.

Did You Feel It?

Where it was felt

No “Did You Feel It?” reports have been published for this event yet. If you felt it, you can add your report on the USGS website.

I felt it — report to USGS ↗

USGS PAGER estimate

Who was exposed to shaking

USGS publishes PAGER impact estimates for significant earthquakes, usually within an hour. No PAGER estimate is available for this event.

After the main event

Aftershocks within 100 km

USGS has not published any M2.5+ earthquake within 100 km in the 30 days after this event.

Regional history

Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km

USGS lists no earlier M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km.

History · NOAA

Deadliest earthquakes in this area

NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 16 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 22,869 recorded deaths. The most severe:

  1. 1792M6.4

    Kyusyu Island

    21 May 1792 · 170 km away

    15,030 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)tsunami

  2. 1707M8.4

    Nankaido

    28 Oct 1707 · 288 km away

    5,000 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)tsunami

  3. 1700M7.0

    Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture

    16 Apr 1700 · 233 km away

    1,000 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)tsunami

  4. 1711M6.7

    Seionaikai, Japan

    20 Dec 1711 · 217 km away

    1,000 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)tsunami

  5. 1872M7.4

    Honshu: Sw

    14 Mar 1872 · 134 km away

    804 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)tsunami

  6. 1889M6.3

    Kumamoto

    28 Jul 1889 · 142 km away

    20 deathsLimited damage (under $1M)

NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.

Nearby trackers

Closest city pages