M4.4 earthquake 106 km WNW of Hihifo, Tonga

Saturday, October 14, 2023, 18:19:15 UTC · 15.525°S, 174.686°W

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck 106 km WNW of Hihifo, Tonga on Saturday, October 14, 2023, 18:19:15 UTC, at a depth of 173.4 km (intermediate).

Magnitude: 4.4; Light · mb
Depth: 173 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

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

7 km

from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Tonga and Niuafo'ou plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.

Depth: intermediate

173 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 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 1,948 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 7 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 194 recorded deaths. The most severe:

2009M8.1
Samoa Islands
29 Sep 2009 · 278 km away
192 deaths$285 million damagetsunami
1917M8.3
Samoa Islands
26 Jun 1917 · 181 km away
2 deathsModerate damage ($1–5M)tsunami
1981M7.7
Apia; American Samoa: Pago Pago
1 Sep 1981 · 183 km away · intensity VI
Limited damage (under $1M)tsunami
1975M7.8
Samoa Islands
26 Dec 1975 · 251 km away · intensity V
tsunami
2023M7.6
Hihifo
10 May 2023 · 12 km away
1957M7.5
Samoa Islands
14 Apr 1957 · 181 km away

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

Nearby trackers