May 10, 2017 Earthquake Information of in South Georgia and the Southwestern Islands

Introduction to the earthquake

• Magnitude：6.5 MW

• Location uncertainty：14.598°S 167.375°E ±2.5 km

• Depth uncertainty：169.0 km ±1.9

• Origin Time：2017-05-10 23:23:36.160 UTC

• FE Region：SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION (153)

latitude

An earthquake begins to rupture at a hypocenter which is defined by a position on the surface of the earth (epicenter) and a depth below this point (focal depth). We provide the coordinates of the epicenter in units of latitude and longitude. The latitude is the number of degrees north (N) or south (S) of the equator and varies from 0 at the equator to 90 at the poles. The longitude is the number of degrees east (E) or west (W) of the prime meridian which runs through Greenwich, England. The longitude varies from 0 at Greenwich to 180 and the E or W shows the direction from Greenwich. The position uncertainty of the hypocenter location varies from about 100 m horizontally and 300 meters vertically for the best located events, those in the middle of densely spaced seismograph networks, to 10s of kilometers for global events in many parts of the world.

Depth

The depth where the earthquake begins to rupture. This depth may be relative to the geoid, mean sea-level, or the average elevation of the seismic stations which provided arrival-time data for the earthquake location. The choice of reference depth is dependent on the method used to locate the earthquake, which varies by seismic network. Since ComCat includes data from many different seismic networks, the process for determining the depth is different for different events. The depth is the least-constrained parameter in the earthquake location, and the error bars are generally larger than the variation due to different depth determination methods.