EARTHQUAKEM4.9

M4.9 earthquake near Delta, B.C., MX

Map: the earthquake near Delta, B.C., MX, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 9 km (6 mi) north of Delta, B.C., MX on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 at 18:27 UTC, at a depth of 16 km (10 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 Tijuana, about 179 km (111 mi) away.

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

302 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM4.9
Depth16 km (10 mi)
Time (UTC)Nov 3 18:27
Location32.43°N 115.18°W
Nearest townDelta · 9 km
Energy338 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+2
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
Felt reports302
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Why here?

This earthquake struck right along the boundary between the North American and Pacific 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.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 5 on the Modified Mercalli scale: moderate. About 100,734 people were exposed to moderate shaking or stronger (intensity 5 and up). USGS’s PAGER system estimates it most likely caused no deaths (90 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 4.9 released roughly the energy of 338 tons of TNT. That is about 22 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 7,900,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 4 hours after it, USGS recorded 2 smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi). The largest was a magnitude 3.0 on November 3 at 19:18 UTC.

Outside the United States, USGS mainly lists quakes of about magnitude 4 and up, so smaller aftershocks there are undercounted.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 39 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 3, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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