M6.8 earthquake south of the Kermadec Islands

Thursday, January 8, 1970, 17:12:41 UTC · 34.850°S, 178.782°E

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck south of the Kermadec Islands on Thursday, January 8, 1970, 17:12:41 UTC, at a depth of 199.4 km (intermediate). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.

Magnitude: 6.8; Strong · mw
Depth: 199 km; Intermediate
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

231 kilotons of TNT

That is about 15 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 484 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.

Tectonic setting

11 km

from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Kermadec and Australian plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.

Depth: intermediate

199 km

Intermediate-depth earthquakes usually break inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle. Shaking spreads over a wide area but is gentler at the epicenter than a shallow quake of the same size.

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 31 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:

Nearby trackers