Reviewed by USGS49y ago
M4.5 earthquake south of the Fiji Islands
Wednesday, November 16, 1977, 16:27:05 UTC · 25.692°S, 176.418°W
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck south of the Fiji Islands on Wednesday, November 16, 1977, 16:27:05 UTC, at a depth of 108.0 km (intermediate). It is the strongest earthquake within 300 km since an M4.8 on November 14, 1977.
- Magnitude
- 4.5
- Light · mb
- Depth
- 108 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 tons of TNT
That is about 1/178 of the Hiroshima bomb. A magnitude 5.0 releases about 6 times more energy.
Tectonic setting
104 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Kermadec and Pacific plates. Earthquakes this far from a boundary happen on faults inside a plate, often less frequently but sometimes strongly.
Depth: intermediate
108 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 210 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:
- 7.8south of TongaOctober 11, 1975 · 158 km NE of this epicenter
- 7.6south of the Fiji IslandsDecember 18, 1963 · 113 km N of this epicenter
- 7.3south of the Fiji IslandsJanuary 20, 1970 · 84 km W of this epicenter
- 7.2south of the Fiji IslandsNovember 24, 1960 · 114 km N of this epicenter
- 7.2south of TongaOctober 10, 1977 · 103 km E of this epicenter
- 7.0south of TongaJanuary 10, 1956 · 143 km SE of this epicenter
- 6.8south of the Fiji IslandsJuly 4, 1963 · 168 km SW of this epicenter
- 6.7south of the Fiji IslandsSeptember 8, 1920 · 141 km N of this epicenter
History · NOAA
Deadliest earthquakes in this area
NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 6 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700. The most severe:
- 1955M7.8
Kermadec Islands
27 Feb 1955 · 272 km away
- 1975M7.8
S Of Tonga
11 Oct 1975 · 158 km away
- 1961M7.5
Kermadec Islands
7 Mar 1961 · 299 km away
- 1963M7.5
Tonga Trench
18 Dec 1963 · 101 km away
tsunami
- 1977M7.2
Tonga Trench
10 Oct 1977 · 103 km away
tsunami
- 1956M7.0
Tonga Islands
10 Jan 1956 · 123 km away
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.