EARTHQUAKEM4.5

M4.5 earthquake in the West Chile Rise

Thursday, November 5, 2026 · 01:35 UTC

Map: the earthquake in the West Chile Rise, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck in the West Chile Rise on Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 01:35 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. It struck far from land: no town on our map lies within 600 km (373 mi).

MagnitudeM4.5

Depth10 km (6 mi)

Time (UTC)Nov 5 01:35

Location40.69°S 87.61°W

Energy85 tons TNT

Aftershocks M2.5+0

Tsunami flagNo

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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 67 km (41 mi) from the boundary between the Antarctic 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 4.5 released roughly the energy of 85 tons of TNT. That is about 5.6 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 32,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 36 hours after it, USGS recorded no smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 100 km (62 mi).

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

Earthquake history here

USGS has no record of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake within 300 km (186 mi) of here since 1900, which makes this a relatively quiet area for large quakes.

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on November 5, 2026 or earthquakes by day.