Reviewed by USGS25y ago
M4.2 earthquake in Prince Edward Islands region
Thursday, March 1, 2001, 13:41:21 UTC · 47.259°S, 32.429°E
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck in Prince Edward Islands region on Thursday, March 1, 2001, 13:41:21 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 earthquake
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
19 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Somali and Antarctic 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 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 34 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:
- 6.7Prince Edward Islands regionAugust 25, 1924 · 279 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.3Prince Edward Islands regionAugust 4, 1957 · 276 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.2south of AfricaJune 8, 1968 · 202 km SW of this epicenter
- 6.2Prince Edward Islands regionAugust 21, 1978 · 46 km S of this epicenter
- 6.1Prince Edward Islands regionMay 9, 1926 · 70 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.1Prince Edward Islands regionJuly 24, 1969 · 265 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.0Prince Edward Islands regionFebruary 18, 2001 · 22 km S of this epicenter
- 6.0south of AfricaNovember 11, 1986 · 184 km SW of this epicenter
History · NOAA
Deadliest earthquakes in this area
NOAA’s significant-earthquake database lists 1 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700. The most severe:
- 1942M7.9
Prince Edward Island
10 Nov 1942 · 251 km away
NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database. Historical figures are estimates; older records are incomplete.