EARTHQUAKEM5.8

M5.8 earthquake near Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia

Map: the earthquake near Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck 262 km (163 mi) south-southwest of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 16:48 UTC, at a depth of 29 km (18 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest. The nearest city of a million or more people is Sapporo, Japan, about 1,209 km (751 mi) away.

USGS’s PAGER impact estimate is GREEN: little or no damage expected.

MagnitudeM5.8
Depth29 km (18 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 6 16:48
Location48.44°N 154.93°E
Nearest townSevero-Kuril’sk · 262 km
Energy8 kilotons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+5
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 100 km (62 mi) from the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. Most earthquakes happen along plate boundaries like this one, where the pieces of Earth’s outer shell collide, pull apart or grind past each other. Stress builds up over years until the rock suddenly slips.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

What kind of fault?

USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves shows it was a thrust (reverse) earthquake: one block of crust was pushed up and over another, as happens where plates collide.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 4 on the Modified Mercalli scale: light. USGS’s PAGER system estimates it most likely caused no deaths (90 percent probability). Early estimates are revised as reports come in.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 5.8 released roughly the energy of 8 kilotons of TNT. That is about 501 times the energy of a magnitude 4.0, a quake people nearby feel but that rarely causes damage. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5 in Chile in 1960, released about 350,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 20 days after it, USGS recorded 5 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 4.9 on October 12 at 15:44 UTC.

Outside the United States, USGS mainly lists quakes of about magnitude 4 and up, so smaller aftershocks there are undercounted.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 188 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger within 300 km (186 mi) since 1900. The strongest:

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on October 6, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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