Reviewed by USGSNew Zealand89y ago
M7.0 earthquake 15 km WNW of Te Anau, New Zealand
Friday, December 16, 1938, 17:21:34 UTC · 45.371°S, 167.526°E
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 15 km WNW of Te Anau, New Zealand on Friday, December 16, 1938, 17:21:34 UTC, at a depth of 100.0 km (intermediate). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.
- Magnitude
- 7.0
- Major · mw
- Depth
- 100 km
- Intermediate
- Felt reports
- 0
- Did You Feel It?
- Est. shaking
- VII
- Very strong (ShakeMap)
- PAGER alert
- None
- Not issued
- Tsunami
- No flag
- USGS feed
Outlined circle: this earthquakeDashed circle: 200 km aftershock search areaColoured lines: estimated shaking intensity (USGS ShakeMap)
In context
How big was it, and why here?
Energy released
477 kilotons of TNT
That is about 32 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 1,000 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.
Tectonic setting
61 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Pacific and Australian plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.
Depth: intermediate
100 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 200 km
USGS lists 1 M2.5+ earthquake within 200 km in the following 30 days; the largest was M6.6 on December 16, 1938. Most nearby activity right after a large earthquake is aftershocks, which usually become less frequent over days and weeks.
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 1 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700. The most severe:
- 1826M8.0
Fjordland
1826 · 93 km away
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.