Reviewed by USGSIndia91y ago
M6.5 earthquake 171 km S of Port Blair, India
Sunday, April 19, 1936, 09:04:03 UTC · 10.116°N, 92.735°E
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck 171 km S of Port Blair, India on Sunday, April 19, 1936, 09:04:03 UTC, at a depth of 35.0 km (shallow). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.
- Magnitude
- 6.5
- Strong · mw
- Depth
- 35 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
79 kilotons of TNT
That is about 5 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 166 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.
Tectonic setting
78 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Caribbean and Cocos plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.
Depth: shallow
35 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 11 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:
- 6.3273 km SSE of Port Blair, IndiaOctober 21, 1916 · 128 km SE of this epicenter
- 6.2112 km NE of Bamboo Flat, IndiaJuly 4, 1917 · 273 km N of this epicenter
- 6.1211 km S of Port Blair, IndiaAugust 1, 1929 · 43 km S of this epicenter
- 6.0119 km SW of Port Blair, IndiaMay 13, 1925 · 98 km NW of this epicenter
- 6.097 km ESE of Port Blair, IndiaOctober 11, 1914 · 174 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.0Nicobar Islands, India regionDecember 11, 1932 · 216 km SE of this epicenter
- 5.978 km S of Port Blair, IndiaJune 28, 1925 · 94 km N of this epicenter
- 5.8Nicobar Islands, India regionSeptember 20, 1932 · 253 km S of this epicenter
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:
- 1881M7.9
Andaman I,Nicobar I
31 Dec 1881 · 181 km away
Severe damage ($5–24M)tsunami
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.