Earthquake details

Sunday, October 4, 1981 Earthquake

The earthquake hit Papua New Guinea on Sunday, October 4, 1981 at 00:01 UTC with a magnitude of 6.3. The closest known location in the current dataset is Mount Hagen (Papua New Guinea - PG), about 254.1 km away. The epicenter is located at longitude 146.123 and latitude -4.570.

Magnitude	6.3
Alert	Severe
Depth	33.0 km
Coordinates	-4.570, 146.123
UTC time	1981-10-04 00:01:32.790

Location	Lae
Country	Papua New Guinea (PG)
Severity	Severe

Earthquake map 1981-10-04

Closest countries

The 12 closest cities near the epicenter.

Mount Hagen	254.1 km
Lae	258.5 km
Port Moresby	557.9 km
Jayapura	641.8 km
Abepura	648.3 km
Merauke	768.7 km
Wamena	798.2 km
Arawa	1062.7 km
Nabire	1187.3 km
Cairns	1375.7 km
Manokwari	1402.7 km
Tual	1487.2 km

Nearby earthquakes

The latest 8 earthquakes within 100 km of this epicenter.

M 4.8 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-04-04 10:48 UTC	277.5 km
M 4.1 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-03-09 14:54 UTC	194.9 km
M 4.6 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-02-21 05:03 UTC	179.8 km
M 4.6 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-02-17 22:52 UTC	215.3 km
M 4.6 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-02-16 07:36 UTC	201.5 km
M 4.5 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-02-15 08:53 UTC	165.1 km
M 4.3 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-02-03 23:50 UTC	260.1 km
M 4.6 Lae Papua New Guinea · 2026-02-03 21:24 UTC	160.3 km

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