EARTHQUAKEM4.5

M4.5 earthquake near Āwash, Ethiopia

Map: the earthquake near Āwash, Ethiopia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck 13 km (8 mi) west-southwest of Āwash, Ethiopia on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 13:31 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 Addis Ababa, about 151 km (94 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.5
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 28 13:31
Location8.92°N 40.06°E
Nearest townĀwash · 13 km
Energy85 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 34 km (21 mi) from the boundary between the African and Somali 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 4.5 released roughly the energy of 85 tons of TNT. That is about 5.6 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 32,000,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 7 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 28, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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