M4.6 earthquake in the Izu Islands, Japan region

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck in the Izu Islands, Japan region on Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 03:14 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 epicenter was about 571 km (355 mi) southeast of Yokohama.
Why here?
This earthquake struck about 30 km (19 mi) from the boundary between the Pacific and Philippine Sea 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 4.6 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.
Earthquake history here
Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 60 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger within 300 km (186 mi) since 1900. The strongest:
- M6.8 · Izu Islands, Japan regionSeptember 6, 1982
- M6.7 · Izu Islands, Japan regionDecember 19, 1942
- M6.7 · Izu Islands, Japan regionDecember 7, 1970
Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.
See every earthquake on October 31, 2026 or earthquakes by day.
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