M5.5 earthquake 76 km ENE of Pangai, Tonga
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck 76 km ENE of Pangai, Tonga on Sat, Sep 3, 2016, 12:23 AM GMT+13 (11:23 UTC), 10 km (6 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.5 (Mwb, body-wave moment), moderate
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 2016-09-02 11:23:06 UTC
- Depth
- 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
- Epicenter
- 19.500° S, 173.706° W
- Region
- Tonga
- Felt reports
- 2
- Strongest shaking
- IV, light 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | Mwb, body-wave moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.052 · 35 stations |
| 5.34 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Felt at Neiafu and Pangai.
From the USGS event page for us10006jmt. 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
- IV, light shaking
- Map
- Automatic
Did you feel it?
2 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was III, 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
- Strike-slip
- Moment magnitude
- 5.5 Mwb
- Nodal plane 1
- Strike 24°, dip 56°, rake 164°
- Nodal plane 2
- Strike 123°, dip 77°, rake 35°
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Location uncertainty
- About 5.6 km horizontally, 1.7 km in depth
- Magnitude uncertainty
- ±0.05
- Depth from
- Operator assigned
- Station coverage gap
- 27°
- Stations used
- 268
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 2.5 and up: 12 in the 60 days after this one and 1 in the 30 days before it.
After
- 4.593 km ENE of Pangai, Tonga · 3684 days ago · 10 km deep · 21 km away
- 4.672 km NE of Pangai, Tonga · 3684 days ago · 10 km deep · 24 km away
- 4.436 km E of Neiafu, Tonga · 3684 days ago · 10 km deep · 88 km away
- 4.634 km SSE of Neiafu, Tonga · 3684 days ago · 10 km deep · 66 km away
- 4.9105 km ESE of Pangai, Tonga · 3682 days ago · 21 km deep · 79 km away
- 4.3105 km ESE of Pangai, Tonga · 3680 days ago · 6 km deep · 87 km away
- 4.6Tonga · 3674 days ago · 35 km deep · 8 km away
- 5.0127 km E of Pangai, Tonga · 3673 days ago · 35 km deep · 63 km away
- 4.882 km E of Pangai, Tonga · 3663 days ago · 48 km deep · 37 km away
- 4.555 km SSE of Pangai, Tonga · 3661 days ago · 35 km deep · 98 km away
- 4.5131 km ESE of Neiafu, Tonga · 3655 days ago · 10 km deep · 85 km away
- 4.339 km ESE of Neiafu, Tonga · 3652 days ago · 106 km deep · 83 km away
Before
Earthquakes todayTonga earthquakesLive radar here
Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us10006jmt (also filed as gcmt20160902112308, iscgem611830491). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 5:36 AM UTC.