Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 6.9mww
197 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
Yes. A magnitude 6.9 earthquake was recorded 197 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu at 02:31 UTC on 2026-10-24, 10 km deep. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.
- When
- Magnitude
- M 6.9 (mww)
- Depth
- 10 km below the surface
- Felt
- 2 reports · strongest reported intensity II
- Measured shaking
- intensity V (ShakeMap)
- 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 4 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 556 km (345 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 340 kilotons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7.9 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Tōhoku, Japan 2011 M 9.1 2,000× the energy of this one
- San Francisco 1906 M 7.9 32× the energy of this one
- Ridgecrest, California 2019 M 7.1 2× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 6.9 about 340 kilotons of TNT
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 this one released 2× more
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 this one released 45× 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 6.3 on 2026-10-20.
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 -14.0558, 165.5455. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Aftershocks so far
14 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
- 5.3 174 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 4.5 175 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 4.5 184 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.8 182 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 4.8 219 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.1 217 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.0 161 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.3 216 km W of Sola, Vanuatu
- 5.8 203 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.7 205 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 4.9 186 km WNW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.2 202 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 5.1 170 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
- 6.3 170 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
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 | 1 | 2 | |
| reported intensity | 3.6 | 2.2 | |
| felt reports | 3 | 1 | |
| reported intensity | 3.1 | 3.6 | |
| felt reports | 2 | 3 | |
| reported intensity | not reported | 3.1 | |
| felt reports | not reported | 2 | |
| impact alert | not reported | green | |
| measured intensity | not reported | 5.05 |
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.