M4.5 earthquake 46 km WNW of Maubara, Timor Leste

Thursday, December 2, 2004, 12:38:37 UTC · 8.416°S, 124.836°E

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck 46 km WNW of Maubara, Timor Leste on Thursday, December 2, 2004, 12:38:37 UTC, at a depth of 132.7 km (intermediate). It is the strongest earthquake within 300 km since an M4.5 on November 28, 2004.

Magnitude: 4.5; Light · mb
Depth: 133 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 earthquakeDashed circle: 50 km aftershock search area

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

85 km

from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Banda Sea and Timor plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.

Depth: intermediate

133 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 lists 7 M2.5+ earthquakes within 50 km in the following 30 days; the largest was M5.5 on December 13, 2004. 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 439 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 11 damaging, deadly or tsunami-generating earthquakes within 300 km of this epicenter since 1700, which together caused about 461 recorded deaths. The most severe:

1896
Timor: Alor Island
18 Apr 1896 · 21 km away · intensity VIII
250 deathsModerate damage ($1–5M)
1987M6.5
Timor: Pantar, Mount Sirung
26 Nov 1987 · 77 km away
125 deaths$5 million damagetsunami
2004M7.5
Kepulauan Alor
11 Nov 2004 · 30 km away
34 deathsSevere damage ($5–24M)tsunami
1991M6.5
Timor: Kalabahi, Dili
4 Jul 1991 · 39 km away
28 deaths$8 million damage
1982M5.9
Flores Island: Eastern
25 Dec 1982 · 193 km away
13 deaths$1 million damagetsunami
1995M6.9
Timor, Dili, Maliana, Maubara
14 May 1995 · 24 km away · intensity VII
11 deathsLimited damage (under $1M)tsunami

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

Nearby trackers