18 km W of Río Grande, Panama

Yes. A magnitude 6.1 earthquake was recorded 18 km W of Río Grande, Panama at 23:20 UTC on 2026-10-12, 10 km deep. 49 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

2026-10-12 23:20 UTC · 10 km deep · released about 21 kilotons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area

Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.

When: 2026-10-12 23:20 UTC
Magnitude: M 6.1 (mww)
Depth: 10 km below the surface
Felt: 49 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking: intensity VIII (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert: green
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS 27 minutes ago · we first saw it 2 hours ago

This was a strong earthquake. Damage is likely near the epicentre and it is felt over a wide area.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 366 km (227 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 21 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

Ridgecrest, California 2019 M 7.1 32× the energy of this one
Loma Prieta, California 1989 M 6.9 16× the energy of this one
Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 7.9× the energy of this one
This earthquake M 6.1 about 21 kilotons of TNT
Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 this one released 2.8× more
Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 this one released 4× 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 6.6 on 2026-10-09 — about 5.6 times the energy of this one.

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

Map loads when it scrolls into view

Epicentre 7.7028, -81.4989. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

4.8 21 km W of Río Grande, Panama 23:36 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:06 UTC. 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
reported intensity	5	5.4	00:42 UTC
felt reports	43	49	00:42 UTC
felt reports	41	43	00:32 UTC
reported intensity	4.3	5	00:15 UTC
felt reports	32	41	00:15 UTC
felt reports	20	32	00:03 UTC
reported intensity	3.8	4.3	23:50 UTC
felt reports	8	20	23:50 UTC
reported intensity	not reported	3.8	23:41 UTC
felt reports	not reported	8	23:41 UTC
impact alert	not reported	green	23:39 UTC
measured intensity	not reported	7.51	23:37 UTC

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.