EARTHQUAKEM4.8

M4.8 earthquake near San Antonio, Chile

Map: the earthquake near San Antonio, Chile, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck 23 km (14 mi) southwest of San Antonio, Chile on Monday, October 12, 2026 at 18:17 UTC, at a depth of 34 km (21 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 Santiago, Chile, about 110 km (68 mi) away.

13 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM4.8
Depth34 km (21 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 12 18:17
Location33.72°S 71.81°W
Nearest townSan Antonio · 23 km
Energy239 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports13
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 105 km (65 mi) from the boundary between the South American 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 4.8 released roughly the energy of 239 tons of TNT. That is about 16 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 11,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 14 days after it, USGS recorded 1 smaller earthquake of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). It was a magnitude 4.2 on October 26 at 00:55 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 119 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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