Magnitude4.2

Reviewed by USGSTurkey34y ago

M4.2 earthquake 13 km N of Pulumer, Turkey

Tuesday, April 28, 1992, 07:16:27 UTC · 39.606°N, 39.915°E

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck 13 km N of Pulumer, Turkey on Tuesday, April 28, 1992, 07:16:27 UTC, at a depth of 10.0 km (shallow).

Magnitude
4.2
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 earthquakeDashed circle: 50 km aftershock search area

In context

How big was it, and why here?

Energy released

30 tons of TNT

That is about 1/500 of the Hiroshima bomb. A magnitude 5.0 releases about 16 times more energy.

Tectonic setting

7 km

from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Anatolian and Eurasian 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 lists 1 M2.5+ earthquake within 50 km in the following 30 days; the largest was M3.1 on May 20, 1992. Most nearby activity right after a large earthquake is aftershocks, which usually become less frequent over days and weeks.

M3M41h6h1d3d7d14d30dMainshock M4.2
Time after the mainshock on a logarithmic scale (first hours stretched), magnitude on the vertical axis. M2.5+ events from USGS.
  1. 3.1eastern Turkey34y ago · 31 km NE of this epicenter

Regional history

Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km

USGS lists 112 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 54 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 67,979 recorded deaths. The most severe:

  1. 1939M7.8

    Erzincan

    26 Dec 1939 · 44 km away · intensity XII

    32,700 deaths$20 million damagetsunami

  2. 1859M6.1

    Erzurum

    2 Jun 1859 · 123 km away

    15,000 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)

  3. 1784

    Erzurum,Erzincan

    23 Jul 1784 · 37 km away

    5,000 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)

  4. 1903M6.3

    Malazgirt

    28 Apr 1903 · 229 km away · intensity X

    3,560 deathsExtreme damage ($25M+)

  5. 1966M6.8

    Varto

    19 Aug 1966 · 148 km away · intensity IX

    2,394 deaths$20 million damage

  6. 1975M6.7

    Lice

    6 Sep 1975 · 144 km away · intensity IX

    2,311 deaths$17 million damage

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

Nearby trackers

Closest city pages