M5.8 earthquake 169 km ENE of Miyako, Japan
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck 169 km ENE of Miyako, Japan on Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 12:58 AM JST (15:58 UTC), 11 km (7 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.8 (Mww, W-phase moment), moderate
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 2016-08-20 15:58:04 UTC
- Depth
- 11.0 km (6.8 mi), shallow
- Epicenter
- 40.313° N, 143.728° E
- Region
- Japan
- Felt reports
- 6
- Strongest shaking
- III, weak shaking
- PAGER alert
- Green
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.8 | Mww, W-phase moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 5.94 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.9 | Mwb, body-wave moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Moment tensor · Reviewed |
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Felt (II) at Hachinohe Also felt at Sendai and Towada. Recorded (3 JMA) in Miyagi.
From the USGS event page for us10006ffg. 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
- III, weak shaking
- Map
- Automatic
Did you feel it?
6 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was II, weak shaking.
Estimated impact
The USGS PAGER system estimates deaths and economic losses from the shaking and the population and buildings exposed to it.
- Alert level
- Green: little or no damage or loss of life expected
Fault motion and ground failure
How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.
- Faulting
- Reverse (thrust)
- Moment magnitude
- 5.8 Mww
- Nodal plane 1
- Strike 22°, dip 77°, rake 91°
- Nodal plane 2
- Strike 196°, dip 13°, rake 84°
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Location uncertainty
- About 5.2 km horizontally, 1.8 km in depth
- Depth from
- From modeling of broad-band P waveforms
- Station coverage gap
- 106°
- Stations used
- 179
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 2.8 and up: 6 in the 60 days after this one and 5 in the 30 days before it.
After
- 4.7174 km ENE of Miyako, Japan · 3695 days ago · 10 km deep · 23 km away
- 5.2168 km ENE of Miyako, Japan · 3695 days ago · 10 km deep · 14 km away
- 5.2171 km ENE of Miyako, Japan · 3695 days ago · 10 km deep · 1 km away
- 5.2191 km E of Hachinohe, Japan · 3695 days ago · 10 km deep · 41 km away · felt by 4
- 5.3145 km E of Miyako, Japan · 3694 days ago · 6 km deep · 63 km away
- 4.1133 km E of Yamada, Japan · 3681 days ago · 23 km deep · 96 km away
Before
- 4.4181 km ENE of Miyako, Japan · 3696 days ago · 6 km deep · 17 km away
- 4.4184 km ENE of Miyako, Japan · 3696 days ago · 10 km deep · 24 km away
- 6.0170 km ENE of Miyako, Japan · 3696 days ago · 10 km deep · 10 km away · felt by 7
- 4.6156 km E of Yamada, Japan · 3696 days ago · 10 km deep · 93 km away · felt by 1
- 5.3137 km E of Yamada, Japan · 3696 days ago · 23 km deep · 85 km away · felt by 3
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Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us10006ffg (also filed as gcmt20160820155804, iscgem609371194). Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 2:41 AM UTC.