EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near El Aguilar, Argentina

Map: the earthquake near El Aguilar, Argentina, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 100 km (62 mi) west of El Aguilar, Argentina on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 11:41 UTC, at a depth of 206 km (128 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, about 644 km (400 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth206 km (128 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 27 11:41
Location23.18°S 66.66°W
Nearest townEl Aguilar · 100 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck 206 km (128 mi) down, about 480 km (299 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.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 67 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 27, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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