EARTHQUAKEM5.0

M5.0 earthquake near Río Grande, Panama

Map: the earthquake near Río Grande, Panama, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck 27 km (17 mi) west of Río Grande, Panama on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 15:26 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 Panama City, about 266 km (165 mi) away.

MagnitudeM5.0
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 27 15:26
Location7.71°N 81.58°W
Nearest townRío Grande · 27 km
Energy477 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 72 km (45 mi) from the boundary between the Cocos and Nazca 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.

What kind of fault?

USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves shows it was a strike-slip earthquake: the two sides of the fault slid past each other sideways, like California’s San Andreas Fault.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 5.0 released roughly the energy of 477 tons of TNT. That is about 32 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 5,600,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 115 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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