The September 25, 1929 earthquake

M5.6near Kalaoa, Hawaii

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake, centred in Hawaii County. The 35th strongest in Hawaii’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 6.4 on March 28, 1915. 1 aftershock of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.

The earthquake

Magnitude
5.6
surface-wave magnitude (ms)
Depth
—
Not recorded
Local time
Wednesday, September 25, 1929
18:20 HST; 04:50 UTC on Sep 26, 1929
Epicentre
19.75°N, 156.00°W
In Hawaii County
In Hawaii’s record
35th
strongest of 39,637 since 1900
Within 50 miles
1
county; more on this date

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event ushis816 (“3 km NW of Kalaoa, Hawaii”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.

Aftershocks

Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 20 miles of the epicentre in the 30 days after.

1

Aftershocks in 30 days

6.5

Largest aftershock, Oct 6, 1929 · its page

0

On the first day

0

In the 7 days before

Aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more, by day after the earthquake 1: 0 2: 0 3: 0 4: 0 5: 0 6: 0 7: 0 8: 0 9: 0 10: 0 11: 1 1 12: 0 13: 0 14: 0 15: 0 16: 0 17: 0 18: 0 19: 0 20: 0 21: 0 22: 0 23: 0 24: 0 25: 0 26: 0 27: 0 28: 0 29: 0 30: 0 1611162126
  1. The search radius is the surface rupture length expected for an earthquake of this magnitude (Wells and Coppersmith, 1994), at least 20 and at most 600 miles, so a great earthquake's sequence is counted along its whole fault.
  2. Before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s many small aftershocks went unrecorded, so early sequences read short.

Counties and cities within 50 miles

Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.

Counties

Earthquakes around the epicentre

1,799 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.

Earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of the epicentre, by year 1973: 58 1974: 106 1975: 130 130 1976: 37 1977: 42 1978: 44 1979: 53 1980: 55 1981: 39 1982: 58 1983: 94 1984: 45 1985: 35 1986: 23 1987: 42 1988: 74 1989: 28 1990: 24 1991: 30 1992: 23 1993: 16 1994: 5 1995: 5 1996: 10 1997: 30 1998: 76 1999: 29 2000: 9 2001: 14 2002: 7 2003: 9 2004: 8 2005: 11 2006: 42 2007: 18 2008: 11 2009: 10 2010: 19 2011: 18 2012: 21 2013: 17 2014: 19 2015: 22 2016: 34 2017: 30 2018: 64 2019: 29 2020: 26 2021: 33 2022: 47 2023: 28 2024: 21 2025: 21 19731978198319881993199820032008201320182023

Earlier earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles, strongest first

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.