EARTHQUAKEM4.4

M4.4 earthquake near Juradó, Colombia

Map: the earthquake near Juradó, Colombia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck 42 km (26 mi) east-southeast of Juradó, Colombia on Friday, October 16, 2026 at 13:02 UTC, at a depth of 30 km (19 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 Medellin, Colombia, about 216 km (134 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.4
Depth30 km (19 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 16 13:02
Location6.90°N 77.43°W
Nearest townJuradó · 42 km
Energy60 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 99 km (61 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 4.4 released roughly the energy of 60 tons of TNT. That is about 4 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 45,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 10 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 16 at 14:14 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 42 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 16, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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