M 5.6 in New Zealand on 19 Sep 2023 21:14 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1392266
Earthquake Magnitude: 5.6M
Depth: 11.7 Km
Lat/Lon: -43.7064 , 171.118
Event Date: 19 Sep 2023 21:14 UTC
20 Sep 2023 09:14 Local
Exposed Population: 3 thousand in MMI&>=V
Inserted at: 19 Sep 2023 21:33 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
2 (New Zealand)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)
GDACS score
NEIC 0 0
us7000kwrq Scaled population (raster) 0  
  C1 shakemap 0  
  C2 shakemap 0  
  Country Vulnerability 0  
  INFORM_normalised 0  
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
New Zealand - Earthquake (ECHO 20 Sep 2023)Wed, 20 Sep 2023 10:40

  • An earthquake of 5.6 M at a depth of 12 km occurred in the central part of the Southern Island, on 19 September at 21.14 UTC ( 19 September 09:14 local time). The epicentre was located in the mountains approximately nearly 40 km west of Methven and 45 km north of Geraldine (southern Canterbury Region).
  • USGS PAGER estimates that up to 3,000 people were exposed to moderate shaking and up to 478,000 people to light shaking.
  • According to media, thousands of people felt strong shaking. This earthquake is the one with the highest magnitude this year.
  • As of 20 September, there were no reports of damage by this earthquake.
Detailed event map. European Union, 2024. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (48), (3), NEIC (4), OCHA (1), INGV (1), WMO (1), USGS (5), INFORM (2),