Tonga earthquakes

M4.6 earthquake 135 km SSW of Hihifo, Tonga

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 135 km SSW of Hihifo, Tonga on Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 6:20 PM GMT-12 (06:20 UTC), 69 km (43 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M5.2 105 km SSE of Hihifo, Tonga. This one was a foreshock.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 4.6 (mb, body-wave), light
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 6:20 PM GMT-12
UTC: 2016-04-18 06:20:15 UTC
Depth: 69.3 km (43.1 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 17.108° S, 174.232° W
Region: Tonga
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
4.6	mb, body-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.062 · 78 stations
5.1	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Location uncertainty: About 11.3 km horizontally, 6.1 km in depth
Magnitude uncertainty: ±0.06
Depth from: From location
Station coverage gap: 53°
Stations used: 95

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 1.6 and up: 10 in the 60 days after this one and 6 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Tonga earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us20005je2 (also filed as iscgem608557421). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC.