February 28, 1973 Earthquake: Kuril Islands, Hiroo, Urakawa, Russia

Name: February 28, 1973 Earthquake: Kuril Islands, Hiroo, Urakawa, Russia
Start: 1973-02-28
Location: Kuril Islands, Hiroo, Urakawa, Russia

February 28, 1973 · M7.2

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Kuril Islands, Hiroo, Urakawa, Russia on February 28, 1973 at 06:37:49 UTC, 27 km below the surface. It caused a tsunami.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: February 28, 1973
Time: 06:37:49 UTC
Place: Kuril Islands, Hiroo, Urakawa, Russia
Magnitude: 7.2 (Ms)
Magnitude scales: Ms 7.2 · mb 6.3
Focal depth: 27 km (17 mi)
Intensity: VIII, severe shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Epicenter: 50.500° N, 156.600° E
Country: Russia
Region: Kamchatka and Kuril Islands
USGS record: The USGS’s page for this earthquake

Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
7.2	Ms, surface-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
7.5	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.2

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

A strong earthquake occurred 35 km east of Severo-Kurilsk (Paramushir Island) causing ground tremors at an intensity of 7 points in the city. The earthquake was also felt in Hiroo and Urakawa (Hokkaido) at an intensity of 1 pint (JMA). The seismic shock, whose epicenter lay at a depth of 70 km below the ocean bottom, produced tsunami waves which reached the coast of the Kuril Islands at a height of 1.5 m. (reference #417)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
#88 Duda, Seweryn J. (1965). Secular seismic energy release in the circum-Pacific belt. Tectonophysics, vol. 2, no. 5, p. 409-452. DOI:10.1016/0040-1951(65)90035-1
#1232 International Seismological Centre (1964-1990). Regional Catalogue of Earthquakes, 1964-1990, Edinburgh, Scotland.
#223 Kondorskaya, N.V., and N.V. Shebalin, editors (1982). New catalog of strong earthquakes in the U.S.S.R. from ancient times through 1977. Report SE-31, World Data Center A for Solid Earth Geophysics, NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 608 p.
#417 Soloviev, S L., Ch. N. Go, and Kh. S. Kim (1992). Catalog of tsunamis in the Pacific, 1969-1982. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 208 p. Translated from Russian by Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 1988 [Originally published in Russian in 1986].

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1973 The 1900s Every quake the USGS located in 1973 Recent earthquakes near here This day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 4629. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp00000rx, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.