EARTHQUAKEM4.7

M4.7 earthquake near Bengkulu, Indonesia

Map: the earthquake near Bengkulu, Indonesia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck 84 km (52 mi) west-northwest of Bengkulu, Indonesia on Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 15:23 UTC, at a depth of 42 km (26 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 Palembang, Indonesia, about 357 km (222 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.7
Depth42 km (26 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 8 15:23
Location3.49°S 101.58°E
Nearest townBengkulu · 84 km
Energy169 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 219 km (136 mi) from the boundary between the Indian and Sunda 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.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 4.7 released roughly the energy of 169 tons of TNT. That is about 11 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 16,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 18 days after it, USGS recorded no smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi).

A stronger magnitude 4.9 followed on October 22 at 10:57 UTC, about 98 km (61 mi) away, so this one is now considered a foreshock.

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 117 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 8, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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