Mw 6.6 Loyalty Islands

On 1 November 2017 a strong earthquake occurred at the Loyalty Islands at a depth of 17 km. The seismic event occurred at 02:23:57 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 6.6.

Significant planetary geometry involving Mercury converged on 28 October 2017, which had already resulted in a strong earthquake a day earlier in the same region. Lunar geometry involving Uranus and Neptune within one hour occurred on the 30th.

Mercury: Sun-Neptune      2017-10-28,  5:34:26   90°00'00"
Venus:   Mercury-Saturn   2017-10-28, 14:01:35   45°00'00"
Mercury: Sun-Jupiter      2017-10-28, 15:32:14  135°00'00"
Sun:     Mercury-Mars     2017-10-28, 17:59:15   90°00'00"
Mercury: Venus-Earth      2017-10-28, 23:04:38   90°00'00"

Earth:   Moon-Uranus      2017-10-30, 20:06:36   45°00'00"
Earth:   Moon-Neptune     2017-10-30, 21:06:31    0°00'00"
          

SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry