Information on the earthquake: moderate mag. 4.8 earthquake

Moderate magnitude earthquake 4.8 to 14 km deep

21 Sep 00:05 UTC: First to report: BMKG after 8 minutes.

Updated Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 12:09 AM

Moderate magnitude earthquake 4.8 97 km northeast of Bitung, Indonesia

Earthquake 4.8 September 21 08:56 (GMT +9)

Just 12 minutes ago, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck near Bitung in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The tremor was recorded on the morning of Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at 8:56 a.m. local time, at a shallow depth of 14 km below the surface.
The event was recorded by the Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency, the first seismological agency to report it.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) which also listed the earthquake at a magnitude of 4.8.
Cities near the epicenter where the earthquake could have been felt as very weak tremors include Bitung (pop. 137,400) located 97 km from the epicenter, and Laikit, Laikit II (Dimembe) (pop. 8,000) 118 km away.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update the magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant earthquake news becomes available. If you are in the region, please share your experience with us through our reporting mechanism, online or through our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone in the world who is interested in learning more about this earthquake.

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Earthquake data

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Date and hour : 20 Sep 2021 23:56:57 UTC –
Local time at epicenter: Tuesday Sep 21, 2021 8:56 am (GMT +9)
Magnitude: 4.8
Depth: 14.0 km

Latitude / longitude of epicenter: 1.81 ° N / 125.99 ° E↗ (Moluccan Sea, Indonesia)
Antipode: 1.81 ° S / 54.01 ° W↗
Nearest volcano: Ruang (82 km / 51 mi)

Nearby towns and villages:
97 km (60 mi) ENE of Bitung (pop: 137,400) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
118 km (74 mi) ENE of Laikit, Laikit II (Dimembé) (Kabupaten Minahasa Utara) (pop: 8,000) -> See earthquakes nearby!
132 km (82 mi) ENE of Manado (pop: 451,900) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
132 km (82 mi) ENE of Tondano (Kabupaten Minahasa) (pop: 33,300) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
143 km (89 mi) ENE of Tomohon (pop: 27,600) -> See earthquakes nearby!
192 km (119 mi) northwest of Ternate (pop: 101,700) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
211 km (131 mi) northwest of Sofifi (Kota Tidore Kepulauan) (pop: 36,200) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
225 km (140 mi) west of Tobelo (Kabupaten Halmahera Utara) (pop: 10,000) -> Watch the earthquakes nearby!
355 km (221 mi) ENE of Gorontalo (pop: 144,200) -> See nearby earthquakes!
470 km (292 mi) northeast of Luwuk (pop: 47,800) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!

Weather at the epicenter at the time of the earthquake:
Broken clouds

26.8 ° C (80 F), humidity: 81%, wind: 3 m / s (7 kts) from S

Main data source: BMKG (Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia)

Estimated energy released: 1×10¹² joules (278 megawatt hours, equivalent to 239 tonnes of TNT) Find out more

If you felt this tremor (or if you were near the epicenter), share your experience and submit a short “I felt it” report! Other users would love to hear about it!
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Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies

Info: The more agencies report the same earthquake and publish similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It normally takes up to a few hours for the seismic parameters to be calculated with near optimum accuracy.

Mag.	Depth	Site	Source
4.8	14 km	Indonesia: North Moluccas Sea	BMKG
4.9	53 km	Indonesia: SEA OF MOLUCKS	EMSC
4.9	53 km	108 Km ENE from Laikit, Laikit II (Dimembe), Indonesia	USGS