EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake in the Volcano Islands, Japan region

Map: the earthquake in the Volcano Islands, Japan region, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck in the Volcano Islands, Japan region on Monday, October 12, 2026 at 00:53 UTC, at a depth of 201 km (125 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At this intermediate depth, shaking spreads out before it reaches the surface. 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 Yokohama, Japan, about 1,149 km (714 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth201 km (125 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 12 00:53
Location25.18°N 141.06°E
Energy120 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 216 km (134 mi) from the boundary between the Pacific and Philippine Sea 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 201 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 14 days after it, USGS recorded no smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi).

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 40 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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