92 km NW of La Serena, Chile

5 days ago

USGS

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 92 km NW of La Serena, Chile on 14 Oct 2026, 00:30 UTC. The hypocentre was 19.2 km below the surface — shallow by seismological convention. No felt reports have been received so far. The figures have been revised 2 times since the first report. 3 other earthquakes above our reporting threshold have been recorded within 250 km in the past 30 days.

Depth: 19.2 km
Latitude: 29.21°S
Time: 00:30 UTC
Magnitude: M5.1

EPICENTRE

View the official report↗

MAGNITUDE 5.1

Can damage poorly constructed buildings; well-built structures usually escape with little harm.

The scale is logarithmic: this released about 45 times the energy of a magnitude 4.0, roughly the energy of 674 tonnes of TNT.

19.2 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.