EARTHQUAKEM4.6

M4.6 earthquake near Lae, Papua New Guinea

Map: the earthquake near Lae, Papua New Guinea, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck 96 km (60 mi) north-northwest of Lae, Papua New Guinea on Friday, November 6, 2026 at 00:02 UTC, at a depth of 98 km (61 mi), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At this intermediate depth, shaking spreads out before it reaches the surface.

MagnitudeM4.6
Depth98 km (61 mi)
Time (UTC)Nov 6 00:02
Location5.92°S 146.66°E
Nearest townLae · 96 km
Energy120 tons TNT
Tsunami flagNo
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 63 km (39 mi) from the boundary between the Australian 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. At 98 km down, it most likely broke inside a plate that is sinking into the mantle beneath its neighbor, in what geologists call a subduction zone.

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 4.6 released roughly the energy of 120 tons of TNT. That is about 7.9 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 22,000,000 times more than this one.

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 218 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 6, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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