EARTHQUAKEM4.7

M4.7 earthquake in the Kermadec Islands region

Map: the earthquake in the Kermadec Islands region, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck in the Kermadec Islands region on Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 21:26 UTC, at a depth of 151 km (94 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At this intermediate depth, shaking spreads out before it reaches the surface. It struck far from land: no town on our map lies within 600 km (373 mi). The nearest city of a million or more people is Auckland, about 1,268 km (788 mi) away.

MagnitudeM4.7
Depth151 km (94 mi)
Time (UTC)Nov 1 21:26
Location27.29°S 177.87°W
Energy169 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 213 km (132 mi) from the boundary between the Pacific and Australian 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. At 151 km down, it most likely broke inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle beneath its neighbor, in what geologists call a subduction zone.

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 213 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 November 1, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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