EARTHQUAKEM5.3

M5.3 earthquake near Otorohanga, New Zealand

Map: the earthquake near Otorohanga, New Zealand, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 46 km (29 mi) south-southeast of Otorohanga, New Zealand on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 05:25 UTC, at a depth of 284 km (176 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At this intermediate depth, shaking spreads out before it reaches the surface. The nearest city of a million or more people is Auckland, New Zealand, about 200 km (124 mi) away.

USGS’s PAGER impact estimate is GREEN: little or no damage expected.

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

MagnitudeM5.3
Depth284 km (176 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 15 05:25
Location38.58°S 175.38°E
Nearest townOtorohanga · 46 km
Energy1 kilotons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
Felt reports9
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Why here?

This earthquake struck 284 km (176 mi) down, about 333 km (207 mi) from the nearest plate boundary on the surface. Quakes this deep happen inside old ocean plate that has sunk far into the mantle at a subduction zone, long after it dove beneath its neighbor. Their great depth spreads the shaking over a wide area but usually keeps it gentle at the surface.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 3 on the Modified Mercalli scale: weak. USGS’s PAGER system estimates it most likely caused no deaths (95 percent probability). Early estimates are revised as reports come in.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 5.3 released roughly the energy of 1 kilotons of TNT. That is about 89 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 2,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 11 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 45 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 15, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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