The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System provides near real-time alerts about natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination, including media monitoring, map catalogues and Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre.

Green Earthquake alert

Green Earthquake Alert in Off-shore area

Summary

On 11/22/2009 10:47:28 PM UTC an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 and depth 438.9km has struck an unpopulated area in Off-shore area. GDACS estimates the likelihood for need of international humanitarian intervention to be low (Green alert). This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact since the affected region is unpopulated and has high resilience for natural disasters. The nearest populated places are [None]. It is a flat region with a maximum altitude of -605 m. Humanitarian Impact   Population resilience   Tsunami probability   Landslide probability   Nuclear radiation probability   Caution: this information is based on risk models. Whether international humanitarian aid is needed must be decided by an expert. This report was automatically updated by a computer on: 11/23/2009 4:39:29 PM UTC (17 hours 52 minutes after the event) Explanation of alert calculation: Show The impact model combines magnitude (M), population within 100km (P) and vulnerability/resilience ECHO average score (V) using the formula: alertscore = max(M-4.5,0) * log10(max(P / 80000,0))^ 0.5 * max(V,0.5) ^ 1.5 / 3 The weighted product of magnitude (6.2), population (0) and vulnerability (0.5) results in an alertscore of 0 Depth correction: this earthquake occurred more than 300km deep. The alertscore is set to 0. Then alert is Red if alertscore>2, Orange if alertscore>1 and Green if alertscore<=1.

Google map   Population map Population Density near epicenter (people/km2). Image area: 6x4 decimal degrees (approx. 650x450km2). Earthquake epicentre: best estimate    previous estimates:

Earthquake Event

Geological map Characteristics for this report Information source World Data Centre for Seismology, Denver (NEIC) Link to source event report (us2009phbc) PAGER report (2009phbc) Magnitude 6.2 M Depth 438.9 km Location Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude): -31.5868, 179.4194 Off-shore area Seismic region: Kermadec Islands Region. The earthquake happened in Off-shore area. The nearest populated places are [None]. It is a flat region with a maximum altitude of -605 m. Time 11/22/2009 10:47:28 PM (UTC, Universal Standard Time) 11/23/2009 10:45:09 AM (Estimated local solar time) Sun, 11/22/2009 23:47 CET (Brussels, Paris, Rome) Sun, 11/22/2009 17:47 EST (New York, Washington) Sun, 11/22/2009 14:47 PST (San Francisco, Los Angeles) Mon, 11/23/2009 06:47 AWST (Australian Western Standard Time)

Previous reports for this earthquake. Earthquake report Tsunami report Event Date/Time Lat/Lon Magnitude Depth (km) Source Publication Date/Time Delay 69839 11/22/2009 10:47:27 PM UTC -31.65, 179.92 6.2 422 GEOFON 11/22/2009 10:55:45 PM UTC 8min 69840 11/22/2009 10:47:27 PM UTC -31.59, 179.8 5.7 446 GEOFON 11/22/2009 10:59:30 PM UTC 12min 69841 11/22/2009 10:47:27 PM UTC -31.723, 179.869 6 445 NOAA (at00893004) 11/22/2009 11:01:58 PM UTC 14min 69842 11/22/2009 10:47:27 PM UTC -31.6, 179.82 5.7 449 GEOFON 11/22/2009 11:01:59 PM UTC 14min 69843 11/22/2009 10:47:27 PM UTC -31.58, 179.5472 5.9 418.6 NEIC (us2009phbc) 11/22/2009 11:05:54 PM UTC 18min 69866 11/22/2009 10:47:02 PM UTC -31.65, 179.66 6.1 440 EMSC 11/23/2009 8:19:58 AM UTC 572min 69878 11/22/2009 10:47:28 PM UTC -31.5868, 179.4194 6.2 438.9 NEIC (us2009phbc) 11/23/2009 4:39:29 PM UTC 1072min

Earthquake Impact Details

Potentially affected People

The population in the area of this earthquake if 0 people/km². (Data source).

The earthquake occurred at 10h local time. At this time a day, more people are at work and therefore more vulnerable to collapsing office buildings. During traffic hours, people can be affected by collapsing bridges and other road infrastructure.

Damage

Resilience and Vulnerability

Resilience is the capacity of the population to cope with a hazard. Since much of investments in earthquake preparedness and available funds for quick response is related to household income, the GDP per capita can be used as a rough indicator of resilience.

The earthquake epicenter is not located on the territory of a country. Therefore, no resilience information is available.

Based on the combination of 9 indicators, ECHO attributes Off-shore area a low vulnerability.

Exposure

Both conditions for survival and conditions for delivering aid strongly depend on the current weather and temperature. The following graphs show the current and forecast weather.

Current weather conditions and forecasts at earthquake location (lat: -31.5868 - long: 179.4194) (Data source).

Probability of Secondary effects

Landslides: The maximum slope in the area of the earthquake is 0% and the maximum altitude is -605 m. Since this is a low slope, the risk of earthquake induced landslides is low. Note, however, that the slope data is not reliable on a local scale, while landslides depend very much on local topography, soil and meteorological conditions. More...

Critical infrastructure

The following critical infrastructure is nearby and could be affected by the earthquake:

• Nuclear power plants: There are no nuclear facilities nearby the epicenter.
• Hydrodams: There are no hydrodam facilities nearby the epicenter.

The distance to nuclear installations is evaluated based on a 1999 UN dataset containing the location of nuclear plants in the world. If plants are near and the earthquake magnitude is above 6.5, the alert is set to orange. Note that the location of plants is approximate with errors of up to 100km.

Getting there and away

There is no airport within 100km.

Ports nearby are: [None]

Disclaimer

While we try everything to ensure accuracy, this information is purely indicative and should not be used for any decision making without alternate sources of information. The JRC is not responsible for any damage or loss resulting from the use of the information presented on this website.

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