EARTHQUAKEM5.4

M5.4 earthquake near Rioblanco, Colombia

Map: the earthquake near Rioblanco, Colombia, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck 24 km (15 mi) north-northwest of Rioblanco, Colombia on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 at 09:13 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 nearest city of a million or more people is Cali, about 95 km (59 mi) away.

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

MagnitudeM5.4
Depth10 km (6 mi)
Time (UTC)Nov 3 09:13
Location3.74°N 75.72°W
Nearest townRioblanco · 24 km
Energy2 kilotons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
PAGER alertGREEN
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 288 km (179 mi) from the nearest major plate boundary, which makes it an intraplate earthquake. These happen on old faults inside a plate, where stress from the plate’s slow movement is released. They are less common, but can surprise areas that rarely feel quakes.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

What kind of fault?

USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves shows it was a thrust (reverse) earthquake: one block of crust was pushed up and over another, as happens where plates collide.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 6 on the Modified Mercalli scale: strong. About 9,325 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 5.4 released roughly the energy of 2 kilotons of TNT. That is about 126 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 1,400,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 28 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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