EARTHQUAKEM5.1

M5.1 earthquake near Colchane, Chile

Map: the earthquake near Colchane, Chile, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 72 km (45 mi) south-southwest of Colchane, Chile on Friday, October 9, 2026 at 10:22 UTC, at a depth of 124 km (77 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At this intermediate depth, shaking spreads out before it reaches the surface. The nearest city of a million or more people is La Paz, Bolivia, about 386 km (240 mi) away.

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

MagnitudeM5.1
Depth124 km (77 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 9 10:22
Location19.91°S 68.79°W
Nearest townColchane · 72 km
Energy674 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports9
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Why here?

This earthquake struck 124 km (77 mi) down, about 271 km (168 mi) from the nearest plate boundary on the surface. Quakes this deep happen inside old ocean plate that has sunk far into the mantle at a subduction zone, long after it dove beneath its neighbor. Their great depth spreads the shaking over a wide area but usually keeps it gentle at the surface.

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 5.1 released roughly the energy of 674 tons of TNT. That is about 45 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 4,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 17 days after it, USGS recorded 1 smaller earthquake of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). It was a magnitude 4.3 on October 15 at 20:25 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 91 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 9, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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