Georgia earthquakes

M4.9 earthquake 7 km WSW of Oni, Georgia

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 7 km WSW of Oni, Georgia on Wed, May 15, 1991, 6:28 PM GMT+4 (14:28 UTC), 14 km (9 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M6.3 9 km NE of Java, Georgia. This one was a foreshock.

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Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 4.9 (mb, body-wave), light
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Wed, May 15, 1991, 6:28 PM GMT+4
UTC: 1991-05-15 14:28:50 UTC
Depth: 14.0 km (8.7 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 42.565° N, 43.349° E
Region: Georgia
Strongest shaking: V, moderate shaking
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
4.9	mb, body-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed · 50 stations
5.24	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.2

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5289), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: Few (about 1 to 50)
Damage: Limited (under about $1 million)
Houses destroyed: 45

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

A mudslide destroyed all 45 houses in the Khekheti area, causing casualties. Felt (V) in the Dzhava area.

From the USGS event page for usp0004rpk. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: V, moderate shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 15.7% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 1.7 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: CONSTRAINED_BY_DEPTH_PHASES

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 1.9 and up: 7 in the 60 days after this one and 64 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Georgia earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp0004rpk (also filed as iscgem332280, atlas19910515142850). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 6:13 AM UTC.