M5.3 earthquake near Saiki, Oita

What happened

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 39 km SSE of Saiki, Japan on 2 Mar 2017, 14:53 UTC at a depth of 44 km.

Earthquakes of this size are classed as Moderate. Can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre. This was a shallow earthquake, which tends to be felt more strongly at the surface.

The nearest town in our records is Saiki, about 40 km away in Oita, Japan.