Vanuatu earthquakes

M5.6 earthquake 104 km W of Sola, Vanuatu

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck 104 km W of Sola, Vanuatu on Thu, Jun 3, 2010, 5:51 AM GMT+11 (18:51 UTC), 35 km (22 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M6.3 118 km WNW of Sola, Vanuatu. This one was a foreshock.

Map

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

Open the live map with earthquakes

The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.6 (Mwc, centroid moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Thu, Jun 3, 2010, 5:51 AM GMT+11
UTC: 2010-06-02 18:51:07 UTC
Depth: 35.0 km (21.7 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 13.731° S, 166.594° E
Region: Vanuatu
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
5.6	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.56	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.5	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 usp000hdgp. 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: Reverse (thrust)
Nodal plane 1: Strike 1°, dip 21°, rake 99°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 171°, dip 69°, rake 87°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED
Station coverage gap: 36°
Stations used: 118

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.6 and up: 18 in the 60 days after this one and 40 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Vanuatu earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000hdgp (also filed as gcmtc201006021851a, gcmt20100602185107, iscgem15881774). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 9:42 AM UTC.