43 km SSE of Otorohanga, New Zealand

4 days ago

USGS

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 43 km SSE of Otorohanga, New Zealand on 15 Oct 2026, 05:25 UTC. The hypocentre was 286 km below the surface — intermediate by seismological convention. No felt reports have been received so far. The figures have been revised 6 times since the first report. 4 other earthquakes above our reporting threshold have been recorded within 250 km in the past 30 days.

Depth: 286 km
Latitude: 38.55°S
Time: 05:25 UTC
Magnitude: M5.3

EPICENTRE

View the official report↗

MAGNITUDE 5.3

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

The scale is logarithmic: this released about 89 times the energy of a magnitude 4.0, roughly the energy of 1 thousand tonnes of TNT.

286 KM DEEP

At this depth the energy spreads before it reaches the surface. Shaking is usually weaker than a shallow earthquake of the same size, but it can be felt across a wider area.