EARTHQUAKEM4.5

M4.5 earthquake in the south of the Fiji Islands

Map: the earthquake in the south of the Fiji Islands, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck in the south of the Fiji Islands on Monday, October 12, 2026 at 05:15 UTC, at a depth of 471 km (293 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Quakes this deep are usually felt widely but rarely cause damage. It struck far from land: no town on our map lies within 600 km (373 mi). The nearest city of a million or more people is Auckland, New Zealand, about 1,388 km (862 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.5
Depth471 km (293 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 12 05:15
Location25.19°S 179.98°E
Energy85 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+2
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck 471 km (293 mi) down, about 295 km (183 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 4.5 released roughly the energy of 85 tons of TNT. That is about 5.6 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 32,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 14 days after it, USGS recorded 2 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 4.4 on October 15 at 16:32 UTC.

A stronger magnitude 4.9 followed on October 20 at 23:24 UTC, about 52 km (32 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 88 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 12, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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