EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near Ollagüe, Chile

Map: the earthquake near Ollagüe, Chile, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 49 km (30 mi) south of Ollagüe, Chile on Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 21:37 UTC, at a depth of 142 km (88 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 Cochabamba, Bolivia, about 525 km (326 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth142 km (88 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 22 21:37
Location21.66°S 68.34°W
Nearest townOllagüe · 49 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+1
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck 142 km (88 mi) down, about 303 km (189 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 4.6 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 3 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 24 at 17:14 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 118 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 22, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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