M4.8 earthquake 62 km WNW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea

Thursday, March 2, 2017, 20:14:27 UTC · 6.092°S, 154.970°E

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck 62 km WNW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea on Thursday, March 2, 2017, 20:14:27 UTC, at a depth of 161.2 km (intermediate). It is the strongest earthquake within 300 km since an M4.8 on March 2, 2017.

Magnitude: 4.8; Light · mb
Depth: 161 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 earthquakeDashed circle: 50 km aftershock search area

In context

How big was it, and why here?

Energy released

239 tons of TNT

That is about 1/63 of the Hiroshima bomb. A magnitude 5.0 releases about 2 times more energy.

Tectonic setting

48 km

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

Depth: intermediate

161 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 50 km

USGS lists 3 M2.5+ earthquakes within 50 km in the following 30 days; the largest was M4.7 on March 25, 2017. Most nearby activity right after a large earthquake is aftershocks, which usually become less frequent over days and weeks.

Time after the mainshock on a logarithmic scale (first hours stretched), magnitude on the vertical axis. M2.5+ events from USGS.

Regional history

Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km

USGS lists 2,174 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:

History · NOAA

Deadliest earthquakes in this area

NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 35 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 13 recorded deaths. The most severe:

1939M7.7
Bougainville Island
30 Jan 1939 · 119 km away
5 deathsModerate damage ($1–5M)tsunami
1971M7.9
New Ireland: Bougainville
14 Jul 1971 · 135 km away · intensity IX
3 deathsUnder $1 million damagetsunami
2017M7.9
Bougainville Island
22 Jan 2017 · 28 km away · intensity IX
3 deathsLimited damage (under $1M)tsunami
1996M7.2
Bougainville Island
29 Apr 1996 · 47 km away
1 deathModerate damage ($1–5M)
2014M7.1
Bougainville Island
11 Apr 2014 · 56 km away
1 deathLimited damage (under $1M)
1975M7.9
Bismarck Sea: Bougainville
20 Jul 1975 · 56 km away · intensity VIII
Severe damage ($5–24M)tsunami

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

Nearby trackers