EARTHQUAKEM5.3

M5.3 earthquake near Tobelo, Indonesia

Map: the earthquake near Tobelo, Indonesia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 159 km (99 mi) west-northwest of Tobelo, Indonesia on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 19:56 UTC, at a depth of 35 km (22 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 Davao, about 536 km (333 mi) away.

MagnitudeM5.3
Depth35 km (22 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 28 19:56
Location2.43°N 126.76°E
Nearest townTobelo · 159 km
Energy1 kilotons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 238 km (148 mi) from the boundary between the Philippine Sea and Sunda 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 5.3 released roughly the energy of 1 kilotons of TNT. That is about 89 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 2,000,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 239 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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