QuakeScout
Magnitude6.5

Reviewed by USGSRussia118y ago

M6.5 earthquake 232 km WSW of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia

Tuesday, July 13, 1909, 13:13:26 UTC · 50.260°N, 152.918°E

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck 232 km WSW of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia on Tuesday, July 13, 1909, 13:13:26 UTC, at a depth of 250.0 km (intermediate). It is the strongest earthquake within 300 km since an M7.7 on May 25, 1907.

Magnitude
6.5
Strong · ms
Depth
250 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

85 kilotons of TNT

That is about 6 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 178 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.

Tectonic setting

335 km

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

Depth: intermediate

250 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 2 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:

  1. 7.7Sea of OkhotskMay 25, 1907 · 196 km NW of this epicenter
  2. 6.7221 km WNW of Ozernovskiy, RussiaOctober 8, 1906 · 270 km N of this epicenter

History · NOAA

Deadliest earthquakes in this area

NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 2 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700. The most severe:

  1. 1737M7.5

    Kuril Islands

    17 Dec 1737 · 292 km away · intensity IX

    tsunami

  2. 1742M7.5

    Kuril Islands

    18 Nov 1742 · 291 km away

    tsunami

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

Nearby trackers

Closest city pages