EARTHQUAKEM4.9

M4.9 earthquake near Khorixas, Namibia

Map: the earthquake near Khorixas, Namibia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 68 km (42 mi) north-northwest of Khorixas, Namibia on Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 20:34 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 Huambo, Angola, about 790 km (491 mi) away.

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

MagnitudeM4.9
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 21 20:34
Location19.79°S 14.73°E
Nearest townKhorixas · 68 km
Energy338 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports2
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 1,928 km (1,198 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 4.9 released roughly the energy of 338 tons of TNT. That is about 22 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 7,900,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 4 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

USGS has no record of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake within 300 km (186 mi) of here since 1900, which makes this a relatively quiet area for large quakes.

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on October 21, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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