EARTHQUAKEM4.7

M4.7 earthquake near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama

Map: the earthquake near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck 6 km (4 mi) southeast of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama on Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 13:42 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 Panama City, about 195 km (121 mi) away.

2 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM4.7
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 29 13:42
Location7.59°N 80.63°W
Nearest townPitaloza Arriba · 6 km
Energy169 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports2
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 21 km (13 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.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 4.7 released roughly the energy of 169 tons of TNT. That is about 11 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 16,000,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 100 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 29, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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