QuakeScout
Magnitude6.5

Reviewed by USGSRussia74y ago

M6.5 earthquake 164 km S of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia

Thursday, March 5, 1953, 21:21:51 UTC · 49.196°N, 156.085°E

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck 164 km S of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia on Thursday, March 5, 1953, 21:21:51 UTC, at a depth of 30.0 km (shallow). It is the strongest earthquake within 300 km since an M6.6 on January 12, 1953.

Magnitude
6.5
Strong · mw
Depth
30 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

71 kilotons of TNT

That is about 5 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 150 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.

Tectonic setting

90 km

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

Depth: shallow

30 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 95 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:

  1. 7.8266 km SSW of Severo-Kuril’sk, RussiaMay 1, 1915 · 120 km SW of this epicenter
  2. 7.4156 km SE of Severo-Kuril’sk, RussiaOctober 31, 1916 · 148 km NE of this epicenter
  3. 7.2Kuril IslandsJanuary 18, 1925 · 223 km SW of this epicenter
  4. 7.0285 km S of Severo-Kuril’sk, RussiaAugust 1, 1913 · 121 km S of this epicenter
  5. 7.0Kuril IslandsNovember 6, 1951 · 259 km SW of this epicenter
  6. 6.9119 km E of Ozernovskiy, RussiaMarch 24, 1921 · 288 km NE of this epicenter
  7. 6.9102 km E of Severo-Kuril’sk, RussiaNovember 4, 1952 · 192 km NE of this epicenter
  8. 6.8171 km SSW of Severo-Kuril’sk, RussiaJanuary 5, 1953 · 50 km W of this epicenter

History · NOAA

Deadliest earthquakes in this area

NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 9 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 100 recorded deaths. The most severe:

  1. 1737

    Kamchatka

    16 Oct 1737 · 252 km away

    100 deathstsunami

  2. 1915M8.1

    Kuril Islands

    1 May 1915 · 257 km away

  3. 1913M7.7

    Kuril Islands

    1 Aug 1913 · 193 km away

  4. 1929M7.7

    Kuril Islands

    13 Jan 1929 · 115 km away · intensity VII

  5. 1911M7.6

    Near Kamchatka

    4 May 1911 · 290 km away · intensity VII

  6. 1737M7.5

    Kuril Islands

    17 Dec 1737 · 111 km away · intensity IX

    tsunami

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

Nearby trackers

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