EARTHQUAKEM4.9

M4.9 earthquake near Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia

Map: the earthquake near Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 278 km (173 mi) south-southwest of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia on Monday, October 12, 2026 at 15:44 UTC, at a depth of 35 km (22 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 Sapporo, Japan, about 1,202 km (747 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.9
Depth35 km (22 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 12 15:44
Location48.30°N 154.92°E
Nearest townSevero-Kuril’sk · 278 km
Energy338 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+2
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 88 km (54 mi) from the boundary between the North American and Pacific 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 4.9 released roughly the energy of 338 tons of TNT. That is about 22 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 7,900,000 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 4.8 on October 22 at 21:09 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 187 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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