EARTHQUAKEM4.5

M4.5 earthquake near Kokopo, Papua New Guinea

Map: the earthquake near Kokopo, Papua New Guinea, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck 111 km (69 mi) south of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 14:20 UTC, at a depth of 57 km (36 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest.

MagnitudeM4.5
Depth57 km (36 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 20 14:20
Location5.35°S 152.15°E
Nearest townKokopo · 111 km
Energy85 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
See it on the live 3D globe →Watch live on YouTube🔔 Get alerts near you

Why here?

This earthquake struck about 61 km (38 mi) from the boundary between the Australian and Pacific 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 4.5 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 6 days after it, USGS recorded no smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi).

A stronger magnitude 5.0 followed on October 22 at 20:05 UTC, about 45 km (28 mi) away, so this one is now considered a foreshock.

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 486 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 20, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

More from around the world