EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near Tierra y Libertad, Mexico

Map: the earthquake near Tierra y Libertad, Mexico, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 5 km (3 mi) east-northeast of Tierra y Libertad, Mexico on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 12:01 UTC, at a depth of 140 km (87 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 Guatemala, about 404 km (251 mi) away.

1 person reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth140 km (87 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 27 12:01
Location16.40°N 93.82°W
Nearest townTierra y Libertad · 5 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports1
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 219 km (136 mi) from the boundary between the North American and Cocos 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. At 140 km down, it most likely broke inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle beneath its neighbor, in what geologists call a subduction zone.

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 97 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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