EARTHQUAKEM4.8

M4.8 earthquake near Kupang, Indonesia

Map: the earthquake near Kupang, Indonesia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck 41 km (25 mi) west-northwest of Kupang, Indonesia on Monday, October 26, 2026 at 03:59 UTC, at a depth of 35 km (22 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 Makassar, Indonesia, about 689 km (428 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.8
Depth35 km (22 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 26 03:59
Location10.04°S 123.25°E
Nearest townKupang · 41 km
Energy239 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 106 km (66 mi) from the boundary between the Australian and Timor 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 4.8 released roughly the energy of 239 tons of TNT. That is about 16 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 11,000,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 42 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 26, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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