Moderate magnitude 5.3 earthquake at 33 km depth
8 Dec 23:47 UTC: First to report: GEONET (NZ) after 14 minutes.
8 Dec 23:50: Magnitude recalculated from 5.4 to 5.5. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 0.0 to 33.0 km (from 0 to 21 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 20 km (12 mi) towards NE.
9 Dec 00:02: Magnitude recalculated from 5.5 to 5.2. Epicenter location corrected by 8.3 km (5.2 mi) towards ESE.
9 Dec 00:20: Magnitude recalculated from 5.2 to 5.3. Epicenter location corrected by 7 km (4.3 mi) towards WNW.
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Date & time: 8 Dec 2020 11:33:29 UTC –
Local time at epicenter: Tuesday, 8 Dec 11.33 am (GMT -12)
Magnitude: 5.3
Depth: 33.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 28.58815°S / 175.6161°W 
(South Pacific Ocean, New Zealand)
Nearest volcano: Raoul Island (236 km / 147 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
810 km (503 mi) S of ‘Ohonua (Ohonua, Tonga) (pop: 1,240) See nearby quakes!
830 km (515 mi) S of Nuku’alofa (Tonga) (pop: 22,400) [quakes]
831 km (516 mi) S of Kolonga (Tonga) (pop: 1,100) [quakes]
Broken Clouds
21.6°C (71 F), humidity: 75%, wind: 6 m/s (11 kts) from ENEPrimary data source: GEONET (NZ)
Estimated released energy: 5.6 x 1012 joules (1.56 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 1344 tons of TNT) More info
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Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies
Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.
| Magnitude | Depth | Location | Source |
| M 5.3 | 33 km | New Zealand | GEONET (NZ) |
| M 5.7 | 60 km | KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION, New Zealand | EMSC |
| M 5.3 | 10 km | Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand | USGS |
| M 5.7 | 58 km | Kermadec Islands Region, New Zealand | GeoAu |
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Aftershocks of the 5.3 quake South Pacific Ocean, 830 km south of Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga, New Zealand, 8 Dec 11.33 am (GMT -12)
More info
Recorded aftershocks, latest first (0 quakes so far, frequently updated):
So far, no aftershocks have been registered.
Earlier earthquakes in the same area since 1900
Moderate mag. 5.3 earthquake – South Pacific Ocean, 830 km south of Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga, New Zealand, on Tuesday, 8 Dec 11.33 am (GMT -12)
Map of earlier quakes
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