EARTHQUAKEM4.5

M4.5 earthquake near Zapotillo, Panama

Map: the earthquake near Zapotillo, Panama, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck 24 km (15 mi) south-southwest of Zapotillo, Panama on Monday, October 12, 2026 at 23:45 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. The nearest city of a million or more people is Panama City, Panama, about 262 km (163 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.5
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 12 23:45
Location7.81°N 81.61°W
Nearest townZapotillo · 24 km
Energy85 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+4
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 84 km (52 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.

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 13 days after it, USGS recorded 4 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 4.4 on October 16 at 01:50 UTC.

A stronger magnitude 4.7 followed on October 13 at 06:39 UTC, about 17 km (11 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 115 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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