Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 6.3mww
197 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
Yes. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake was recorded 197 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu at 04:20 UTC on 2026-10-20, 16 km deep. 1 person has reported feeling it to USGS.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 6.3 (mww)
- Depth
- 16 km below the surface
- Felt
- 1 report · strongest reported intensity III
- USGS impact alert
- green
- Tsunami
- USGS flagged this event for tsunami evaluation. Follow tsunami.gov for official messages.
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · 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 407 km (253 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 43 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7.3 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Ridgecrest, California 2019 M 7.1 16× the energy of this one
- Loma Prieta, California 1989 M 6.9 7.9× the energy of this one
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 4× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 6.3 about 43 kilotons of TNT
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 this one released 5.6× more
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 this one released 7.9× 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 6.0 on 2026-10-19.
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 -13.9906, 165.5892. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| reported intensity | not reported | 3.4 | |
| felt reports | not reported | 1 | |
| location | 204 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu | 197 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu | |
| longitude | 165.48 | 165.59 | |
| latitude | -14.03 | -13.99 | |
| depth | 10 | 16 | |
| impact alert | not reported | green | |
| measured intensity | not reported | 0 |
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.