Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 5.3mww
43 km SSE of Otorohanga, New Zealand
Yes. A magnitude 5.3 earthquake was recorded 43 km SSE of Otorohanga, New Zealand at 05:25 UTC on 2026-10-15, 286 km deep. 8 people have reported feeling it to USGS.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 5.3 (mww)
- Depth
- 286 km below the surface
- Felt
- 8 reports · strongest reported intensity III
- Measured shaking
- intensity III (ShakeMap)
- USGS impact alert
- green
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2 hours ago
This was a moderate earthquake. Shaking at this size can damage poorly built structures close to the epicentre.
At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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 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.
Where
Epicentre -38.5478, 175.3814. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| felt reports | 7 | 8 | |
| measured intensity | 2.75 | 2.61 | |
| felt reports | 6 | 7 | |
| felt reports | 3 | 6 | |
| felt reports | 2 | 3 | |
| impact alert | not reported | green | |
| felt reports | 1 | 2 | |
| reported intensity | not reported | 2.7 | |
| measured intensity | not reported | 2.75 | |
| felt reports | not reported | 1 |
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.