EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near Port-Olry, Vanuatu

Map: the earthquake near Port-Olry, Vanuatu, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 184 km (114 mi) west-northwest of Port-Olry, Vanuatu on Friday, October 23, 2026 at 03:12 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.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 23 03:12
Location14.17°S 165.61°E
Nearest townPort-Olry · 184 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+3
Tsunami flagNo
See it on the live 3D globe →Watch live on YouTube🔔 Get alerts near you

Why here?

This earthquake struck about 67 km (42 mi) from the boundary between the Pacific and Australian 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 4.6 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 3 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 4.5 on October 24 at 00:27 UTC.

A stronger magnitude 6.9 followed on October 24 at 02:31 UTC, about 14 km (9 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 309 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 23, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

More from around the world