EARTHQUAKEM4.5

M4.5 earthquake in the Banda Sea

Map: the earthquake in the Banda Sea, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck in the Banda Sea on Monday, October 19, 2026 at 06:15 UTC, at a depth of 158 km (98 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At this intermediate depth, shaking spreads out before it reaches the surface. The epicenter was about 349 km (217 mi) southeast of Ambon, Indonesia. The nearest city of a million or more people is Makassar, Indonesia, about 1,169 km (727 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.5
Depth158 km (98 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 19 06:15
Location6.34°S 129.93°E
Nearest townAmbon · 349 km
Energy85 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+2
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck 158 km (98 mi) down, about 259 km (161 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.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 4.5 released roughly the energy of 85 tons of TNT. That is about 5.6 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 32,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 7 days after it, USGS recorded 2 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 4.4 on October 21 at 20:25 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 140 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 19, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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