EARTHQUAKEM7.7

M7.7 earthquake near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama

Map: the earthquake near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck 12 km (7 mi) west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama on Friday, October 9, 2026 at 17:56 UTC, at a depth of 13 km (8 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 Panama City, Panama, about 205 km (127 mi) away.

USGS’s PAGER impact estimate is ORANGE: significant damage likely.

2,002 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM7.7
Depth13 km (8 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 9 17:56
Location7.59°N 80.77°W
Nearest townPitaloza Arriba · 12 km
Energy5.4 megatons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+8
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertORANGE
Felt reports2,002
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 21 km (13 mi) from the boundary between the Cocos and Nazca 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 strike-slip earthquake: the two sides of the fault slid past each other sideways, like California’s San Andreas Fault.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 8 on the Modified Mercalli scale: severe. About 3,496,218 people were exposed to moderate shaking or stronger (intensity 5 and up), including about 207,539 to very strong shaking or worse (7 and up). USGS’s PAGER system estimates between 10 and 100 deaths as the most likely range (39 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 7.7 released roughly the energy of 5.4 megatons of TNT, about 357 times the Hiroshima atomic bomb. That is about 350,000 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 501 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 17 days after it, USGS recorded 8 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 250 km (155 mi). The largest was a magnitude 6.6 on October 9 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 102 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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