EARTHQUAKEM5.1

M5.1 earthquake near Yanglong, China

Map: the earthquake near Yanglong, China, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 263 km (163 mi) west-southwest of Yanglong, China on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 06:41 UTC, at a depth of 10 km (6 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 Xining, China, about 560 km (348 mi) away.

MagnitudeM5.1
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 20 06:41
Location37.90°N 95.64°E
Nearest townYanglong · 263 km
Energy674 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 1,126 km (700 mi) from the nearest major plate boundary, which makes it an intraplate earthquake. These happen on old faults inside a plate, where stress from the plate’s slow movement is released. They are less common, but can surprise areas that rarely feel quakes.

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 5.1 released roughly the energy of 674 tons of TNT. That is about 45 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 4,000,000 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).

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 14 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