EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near San José El Ídolo, Guatemala

Map: the earthquake near San José El Ídolo, Guatemala, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 5 km (3 mi) east of San José El Ídolo, Guatemala on Monday, October 19, 2026 at 14:47 UTC, at a depth of 110 km (68 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 Guatemala, Guatemala, about 93 km (58 mi) away.

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

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth110 km (68 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 19 14:47
Location14.45°N 91.37°W
Nearest townSan José El Ídolo · 5 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports2
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 163 km (101 mi) from the boundary between the North American and Cocos 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. At 110 km down, it most likely broke inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle beneath its neighbor, in what geologists call a subduction zone.

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 4.6 released roughly the energy of 120 tons of TNT. That is about 7.9 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 22,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 7 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 22 at 07:28 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 154 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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