Japan earthquakes

M5.3 earthquake 39 km ENE of Iwaki, Japan

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 39 km ENE of Iwaki, Japan on Thu, Jan 5, 2017, 2:53 AM JST (17:53 UTC), 10 km (6 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M5.7 30 km ENE of Namie, Japan. This one was a foreshock.

Iwaki forecast More in Japan

Map

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

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.3 (Mww, W-phase moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Thu, Jan 5, 2017, 2:53 AM JST
UTC: 2017-01-04 17:53:20 UTC
Depth: 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 37.151° N, 141.313° E
Region: Japan
Felt reports: 69
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
5.3	Mww, W-phase moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.26	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.1	Mwr, regional moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Moment tensor · Reviewed

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Felt (IV) at Koriyama; (III) at Narita, Tokyo and Tsuchiura; (II) at Matsudo. Also felt at Aizuwakamatsu, Ayase, Chiba, Hidaka, Hitachi, Hitachinaka, Ichikawa, Inzai, Ishige, Kashiwa, Kawaguchi, Komae, Koshigaya, Kuki, Kunitachi, Mito, Musashino, Nihommatsu, Oyama, Saitama, Sendai, Urayasu, Utsunomiya, Yamato and Wako,

From the USGS event page for us10007py4. 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

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

69 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was IV, light 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: Normal
Moment magnitude: 5.3 Mww
Nodal plane 1: Strike 17°, dip 58°, rake -96°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 210°, dip 32°, rake -79°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Location uncertainty: About 4.9 km horizontally, 1.7 km in depth
Depth from: Operator assigned
Station coverage gap: 17°
Stations used: 659

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.3 and up: 24 in the 60 days after this one and 22 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Japan earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us10007py4 (also filed as iscgem614095170). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 8:18 AM UTC.