Reviewed by USGS10y ago
M4.4 earthquake southeast of the Loyalty Islands
Sunday, August 28, 2016, 05:44:04 UTC · 22.273°S, 173.763°E
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck southeast of the Loyalty Islands on Sunday, August 28, 2016, 05:44:04 UTC, at a depth of 10.0 km (shallow).
- Magnitude
- 4.4
- Light · mb
- Depth
- 10 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
60 tons of TNT
That is about 1/251 of the Hiroshima bomb. A magnitude 5.0 releases about 8 times more energy.
Tectonic setting
30 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Conway Reef and New Hebrides plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.
Depth: shallow
10 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 50 km
USGS has not published any M2.5+ earthquake within 50 km in the 30 days after this event.
Regional history
Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km
USGS lists 383 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:
- 7.6south of the Fiji IslandsMarch 3, 1990 · 145 km E of this epicenter
- 7.5southeast of the Loyalty IslandsJanuary 4, 1998 · 293 km W of this epicenter
- 7.2southeast of the Loyalty IslandsNovember 14, 1906 · 223 km W of this epicenter
- 7.2southeast of the Loyalty IslandsAugust 12, 2016 · 70 km W of this epicenter
- 7.1southeast of the Loyalty IslandsAugust 17, 1935 · 236 km W of this epicenter
- 7.1southeast of the Loyalty IslandsApril 14, 1906 · 251 km W of this epicenter
- 7.1southeast of the Loyalty IslandsNovember 15, 1984 · 291 km W of this epicenter
- 7.0southeast of the Loyalty IslandsAugust 25, 1926 · 183 km SW of this epicenter
History · NOAA
Deadliest earthquakes in this area
NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 4 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700. The most severe:
- 1990M7.6
Fiji Islands
3 Mar 1990 · 145 km away
- 1943M7.5
Loyalty Islands
14 Sep 1943 · 286 km away
- 1944M7.5
Loyalty Islands
5 Oct 1944 · 183 km away
- 2016M7.2
Loyalty Islands
12 Aug 2016 · 70 km away · intensity VI
tsunami
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.