Earthquake Information: Powerful Mag. 5.5 earthquake

Strong magnitude earthquake 5.5 to 10 km deep
October 2 02:27 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 10 minutes.
October 2 02:31: Epicenter location corrected 9.5 km (5.9 mi) to the NE.
October 2 02:49: Magnitude recalculated from 5.4 to 5.5.
Updated Sat Oct 2, 2021, 02:36 AM
Magnitude 5.4 earthquake strikes near Arawa, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea
Earthquake 5.4 October 2 1:17 p.m. (GMT +11)
A second report was later released by the Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency, which also listed it as a magnitude 5.4 earthquake. Other agencies reporting the same earthquake include the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) at magnitude 5.1 and France’s National Seismic Monitoring Network (RéNaSS) at magnitude 5.2.
Based on preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused significant damage, but was likely felt by many as a slight vibration in the epicenter area.
Weak tremors could have been felt in Buin (750 inhabitants) located 105 km from the epicenter, Panguna (2,900 inhabitants) at 113 km, Arawa (40,300 inhabitants) at 126 km and Kieta (3,600 inhabitants) at 132 km.
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 : October 2, 2021 02:17:13 UTC –
Local time at epicenter: Saturday October 2, 2021 1:17 p.m. (GMT +11)
Size: 5.5
Depth: 10.0 km
Latitude / longitude of epicenter: 7.06 ° S / 154.79 ° E↗ (Solomon Sea, Papua New Guinea)
Antipode: 7.06 ° N / 25.21 ° W↗
Nearest volcano: Loloru (110 km)
Nearby towns and villages:
105 km (65 mi) WW of Buin (pop: 750) -> See nearby earthquakes!
113 km (70 mi) southwest of Panguna (pop: 2,920) -> Watch the earthquakes nearby!
126 km (78 mi) southwest of Arawa (pop: 40,300) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
254 km (158 mi) to WNW of Gizo (New Georgia Group, Solomon Islands) (pop: 6,150) -> See nearby earthquakes!
411 km (256 mi) southeast of Kokopo (pop: 26,300) -> See earthquakes nearby!
431 km (268 mi) southeast of Rabaul (pop: 8,070) -> Watch the earthquakes nearby!
883 km (548 mi) ENE from Port Moresby (pop: 283,700) -> Observe the earthquakes nearby!
Clouds covered

Main data source: GFZ (German Geoscience Research Center)
Estimated energy released: 1.1 x 1013 joules (3.12 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 2682 tonnes of TNT or 0.2 atomic bombs!) More info
If you did NOT feel the earthquake although you are in the area, please report it! Your contribution is valuable to earthquake science, seismic risk analysis and mitigation efforts. You can use your device’s location or the map to show where you were during the earthquake. Thank you!
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 |
5.5 | 10 km | Papua New Guinea: Solomon Islands | GFZ |
5.2 | 10 km | Solomon Islands: Near Port Moresby | RENASS |
5.4 | 60 km | Papua New Guinea: BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PNG | EMSC |
5.4 | 58 km | The Solomon Islands | BMKG |
5.4 | 10 km | 117 km SW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea | USGS |
5.1 | 54 km | Papua New Guinea: Solomon Islands | GeoAu |
replicas
More information
Aftershocks recorded, latest first (0 earthquakes so far, frequently updated)
So far, no aftershock has been recorded.
Previous earthquakes in the same region
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