EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near Bole, China

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

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 80 km (50 mi) southeast of Bole, China on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 22:42 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 Urumqi, about 392 km (243 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 28 22:42
Location44.34°N 82.72°E
Nearest townBole · 80 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 1,324 km (823 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.

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.

Aftershocks

In the first 3 hours after it, USGS recorded no smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi).

Outside the United States, USGS mainly lists quakes of about magnitude 4 and up, so smaller aftershocks there are undercounted.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 17 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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