EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near Houma, Tonga

Map: the earthquake near Houma, Tonga, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 260 km (162 mi) west-northwest of Houma, Tonga on Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 10:05 UTC, at a depth of 513 km (319 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Quakes this deep are usually felt widely but rarely cause damage.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth513 km (319 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 11 10:05
Location20.39°S 177.66°W
Nearest townHouma · 260 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 155 km (96 mi) from the boundary between the Australian and Tonga 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. At 513 km down, it most likely broke inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle beneath its neighbor, in what geologists call a subduction zone.

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 4.6 released roughly the energy of 120 tons of TNT. That is about 7.9 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 22,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 15 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 23 at 06:07 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 213 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 11, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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