EARTHQUAKEM6.3

M6.3 earthquake near Norsup, Vanuatu

Map: the earthquake near Norsup, Vanuatu, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 102 km (63 mi) northeast of Norsup, Vanuatu on Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 09:00 UTC, at a depth of 10 km (6 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest.

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

5 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM6.3
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 8 09:00
Location15.54°S 168.19°E
Nearest townNorsup · 102 km
Energy43 kilotons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
Felt reports5
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 199 km (123 mi) from the boundary between the Pacific and Australian 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 8 on the Modified Mercalli scale: severe. About 36,730 people were exposed to moderate shaking or stronger (intensity 5 and up), including about 8,680 to very strong shaking or worse (7 and up). 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 6.3 released roughly the energy of 43 kilotons of TNT, about 2.8 times the Hiroshima atomic bomb. That is about 2,800 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 63,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 18 days after it, USGS recorded 1 smaller earthquake of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). It was a magnitude 4.9 on October 23 at 22:42 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 331 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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