EARTHQUAKEM5.3

M5.3 earthquake near Nagqu, China

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

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 223 km (139 mi) east-northeast of Nagqu, China on Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 08:39 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 838 km (521 mi) away.

MagnitudeM5.3
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 24 08:39
Location32.56°N 94.05°E
Nearest townNagqu · 223 km
Energy1 kilotons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+4
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 575 km (357 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 5.3 released roughly the energy of 1 kilotons of TNT. That is about 89 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 2,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 2 days after it, USGS recorded 4 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 5.1 on October 25 at 11:24 UTC.

A stronger magnitude 5.9 followed on October 25 at 11:25 UTC, about 11 km (7 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 10 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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