EARTHQUAKEM4.9

M4.9 earthquake near Kilmia, Yemen

Map: the earthquake near Kilmia, Yemen, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 148 km (92 mi) north-northwest of Kilmia, Yemen on Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 11:20 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 Aden, Yemen, about 707 km (439 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.9
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 24 11:20
Location13.32°N 51.51°E
Nearest townKilmia · 148 km
Energy338 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck right along the boundary between the African and Arabian 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 4.9 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 41 hours 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 12 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 24, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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