79 km SSE of Panguna, Papua New Guinea

8 days ago

USGS

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck 79 km SSE of Panguna, Papua New Guinea on 11 Oct 2026, 14:07 UTC. The hypocentre was 53.5 km below the surface — shallow by seismological convention. No felt reports have been received so far. The figures have been revised 4 times since the first report. 2 other earthquakes above our reporting threshold have been recorded within 250 km in the past 30 days.

Depth: 53.5 km
Latitude: 7.01°S
Time: 14:07 UTC
Magnitude: M6.2

EPICENTRE

View the official report↗

MAGNITUDE 6.2

Can be destructive in populated areas up to about 160 km across.

The scale is logarithmic: this released about 63 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0, roughly the energy of 30 thousand tonnes of TNT.

53.5 KM DEEP

Shallow earthquakes release their energy close to the surface, so they are felt more strongly, and do more damage, than deeper earthquakes of the same magnitude.