EARTHQUAKEM6.4

M6.4 earthquake in the southeast of Easter Island

Map: the earthquake in the southeast of Easter Island, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck in the southeast of Easter Island on Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 07:49 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. It struck far from land: no town on our map lies within 600 km (373 mi).

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

MagnitudeM6.4
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Oct 29 07:49
Location36.41°S 98.05°W
Energy60 kilotons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 40 km (25 mi) from the boundary between the Antarctic 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.

What kind of fault?

USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves shows it was a strike-slip earthquake: the two sides of the fault slid past each other sideways, like California’s San Andreas Fault.

Shaking and impact

USGS’s PAGER system estimates it most likely caused no deaths (99 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 6.4 released roughly the energy of 60 kilotons of TNT, about 4 times the Hiroshima atomic bomb. That is about 4,000 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 45,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 25 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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