EARTHQUAKEM5.3

M5.3 earthquake near Palekastro, Greece

Map: the earthquake near Palekastro, Greece, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 81 km (50 mi) south-southeast of Palekastro, Greece on Monday, November 2, 2026 at 16:49 UTC, at a depth of 48 km (30 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 Izmir, about 444 km (276 mi) away.

MagnitudeM5.3
Depth48 km (30 mi)
Time (UTC)Nov 2 16:49
Location34.48°N 26.47°E
Nearest townPalekastro · 81 km
Energy1 kilotons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 60 km (38 mi) from the boundary between the Eurasian and African 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 5.3 released roughly the energy of 1 kilotons of TNT. That is about 89 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 2,000,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 37 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 2, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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