Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 5.3mww
81 km SSW of Banda Aceh, Indonesia
- When
- Magnitude
- M 5.3 (mww)
- Depth
- 56 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Measured shaking
- intensity IV (ShakeMap)
- USGS impact alert
- green
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 15 hours ago
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake was recorded 81 km SSW of Banda Aceh, Indonesia at 23:37 UTC on 2026-10-03. This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 1.3 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 6.3 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5.6× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 5.3 about 1.3 kilotons of TNT
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2,800× more
Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.5 on 2026-09-30.
Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.
Where
Epicentre 4.8247, 95.1622. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Aftershocks so far
No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.
Revisions
USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.
| What changed | From | To | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| location | 80 km S of Banda Aceh, Indonesia | 81 km SSW of Banda Aceh, Indonesia | |
| longitude | 95.24 | 95.16 | |
| latitude | 4.82 | 4.82 | |
| depth | 69.73 | 56.27 | |
| magnitude | 5.6 | 5.3 | |
| impact alert | not reported | green | |
| measured intensity | not reported | 4.24 |
On USGS
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.