EARTHQUAKEM4.8

M4.8 earthquake in the North Atlantic Ocean

Map: the earthquake in the North Atlantic Ocean, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck in the North Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 03:02 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. 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 Natal, Brazil, about 1,470 km (913 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.8
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 14 03:02
Location5.01°N 27.58°W
Energy239 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 388 km (241 mi) from the nearest major plate boundary, which makes it an intraplate earthquake. These happen on old faults inside a plate, where stress from the plate’s slow movement is released. They are less common, but can surprise areas that rarely feel quakes.

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 12 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

USGS has no record of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake within 300 km (186 mi) of here since 1900, which makes this a relatively quiet area for large quakes.

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on October 14, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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