Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Vanuatu Earthquake 1708 UTC

The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: An earthquake occurred about 45 km (30 mi) east-southeast of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu at 11:08 AM MDT, Aug 1, 2007 (Aug 02 at 4:08 AM local time in Vanuatu). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time; however, this earthquake may have caused damage due to its location and size.

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 7.2
# Date-Time Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 17:08:57 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
# Thursday, August 2, 2007 at 4:08:57 AM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 15.651°S, 167.542°E
Depth 172.7 km (107.3 miles)
Region VANUATU
Distances 45 km (30 miles) ESE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
245 km (155 miles) NNW of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu
470 km (290 miles) NNW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu
1995 km (1240 miles) NE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12 km (7.5 miles); depth +/- 23.7 km (14.7 miles)
Parameters Nst=162, Nph=162, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.47 sec, Gp= 43°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
Source

USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2007fmba

The earthquake locations and magnitudes cited in these bulletins are very preliminary, and may disagree with the more accurate USGS locations and magnitudes computed using more extensive data sets.


No tsunami warnings have been issued at this time.

If the preliminary depth measurements hold up, this would be an extremely deep earthquake, which often means less damage than an event of this size near the surface.