M5.7 earthquake Fiji region
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck in the Fiji region on Sun, Apr 19, 2009, 6:49 AM GMT+13 (17:49 UTC), 566 km (352 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.7 (Mwb, body-wave moment), moderate
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 2009-04-18 17:49:39 UTC
- Depth
- 566.1 km (351.8 mi), deep
- Epicenter
- 20.613° S, 178.482° W
- Region
- Fiji
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.7 | Mwb, body-wave moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 5.73 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.7 | Mwc, centroid moment | Global CMT project | Preliminary |
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
no people dead or missing; no people injured; no buildings damaged or destroyed
From the USGS event page for usp000gwbc. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
Did you feel it?
No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.
Fault motion and ground failure
How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.
- Faulting
- Normal
- Nodal plane 1
- Strike 203°, dip 6°, rake -103°
- Nodal plane 2
- Strike 36°, dip 84°, rake -89°
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Depth from
- CONSTRAINED_BY_DEPTH_PHASES
- Station coverage gap
- 38°
- Stations used
- 273
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 2.7 and up: 6 in the 60 days after this one and 3 in the 30 days before it.
After
- 4.4Fiji region · 6377 days ago · 577 km deep · 73 km away
- 4.4Fiji region · 6375 days ago · 593 km deep · 36 km away
- 4.5Fiji region · 6361 days ago · 633 km deep · 99 km away
- 4.5Fiji region · 6347 days ago · 647 km deep · 61 km away
- 4.6Fiji region · 6346 days ago · 627 km deep · 84 km away
- 4.5Fiji region · 6344 days ago · 667 km deep · 87 km away
Before
Earthquakes todayFiji earthquakesLive radar here
Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000gwbc (also filed as gcmtc200904181749a, gcmt20090418174939, iscgem15153797). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC.