M6.9 earthquake 6 km E of Stari Bar, Montenegro

Sunday, April 15, 1979, 06:19:44 UTC · 42.096°N, 19.209°E

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck 6 km E of Stari Bar, Montenegro on Sunday, April 15, 1979, 06:19:44 UTC, at a depth of 10.0 km (shallow). No earthquake of this size or larger appears within 300 km in the USGS catalog since 1900.

Magnitude: 6.9; Strong · ms
Depth: 10 km; Shallow
Felt reports: 0; Did You Feel It?
Est. shaking: IX; Violent (ShakeMap)
PAGER alert: None; Not issued
Tsunami: No flag; USGS feed

Outlined circle: this earthquakeDashed circle: 100 km aftershock search areaColoured lines: estimated shaking intensity (USGS ShakeMap)

In context

How big was it, and why here?

Energy released

338 kilotons of TNT

That is about 22 times the Hiroshima bomb. It released about 708 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0.

Tectonic setting

340 km

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

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 100 km

USGS lists 96 M2.5+ earthquakes within 100 km in the following 30 days; the largest was M5.7 on April 15, 1979. 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 151 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 69 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 4,419 recorded deaths. The most severe:

1851M6.6
Vlore (Valona),Berat; Turkey
12 Oct 1851 · 182 km away · intensity XI
2,000 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)tsunami
1963M6.0
Macedonia: Skopje
26 Jul 1963 · 173 km away · intensity X
1,070 deaths$1.0 billion damage
1851
Berat
17 Oct 1851 · 182 km away · intensity X
400 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)
1920M6.2
Tepelene, Dragoti, Peshtani, Maricaj
26 Nov 1920 · 221 km away · intensity XI
200 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)
1979M6.9
Montenegro
15 Apr 1979 · 0 km away · intensity IX
131 deaths$2.7 billion damagetsunami
1905M6.6
Shkoder
1 Jun 1905 · 32 km away · intensity X
120 deaths$24 million damage

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

Nearby trackers