EARTHQUAKEM5.4

M5.4 earthquake near Nagqu, China

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

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck 210 km (130 mi) east-northeast of Nagqu, China on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 18:57 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, about 851 km (529 mi) away.

USGS’s PAGER impact estimate is GREEN: little or no damage expected.

MagnitudeM5.4
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 27 18:57
Location32.54°N 93.90°E
Nearest townNagqu · 210 km
Energy2 kilotons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 573 km (356 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.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 7 on the Modified Mercalli scale: very strong. About 509 people were exposed to moderate shaking or stronger (intensity 5 and up). USGS’s PAGER system estimates it most likely caused no deaths (90 percent probability). Early estimates are revised as reports come in.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 5.4 released roughly the energy of 2 kilotons of TNT. That is about 126 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 1,400,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 12 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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