M5.1 earthquake near Huarmey, Peru

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 50 km (31 mi) west-southwest of Huarmey, Peru on Monday, November 2, 2026 at 15:28 UTC, at a depth of 67 km (42 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 Lima, about 268 km (167 mi) away.
1 person reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.
Why here?
This earthquake struck about 159 km (99 mi) from the boundary between the South American 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 5.1 released roughly the energy of 674 tons of TNT. That is about 45 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 4,000,000 times more than this one.
Earthquake history here
Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 30 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger within 300 km (186 mi) since 1900. The strongest:
- M8.2 · 21 km SE of Huacho, PeruMay 24, 1940
- M8.1 · 67 km W of Paramonga, PeruOctober 17, 1966
- M7.9 · 34 km SW of Chimbote, PeruMay 31, 1970
Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.
See every earthquake on November 2, 2026 or earthquakes by day.
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