⚠️ This earthquake carries a tsunami threat. Follow official guidance from your national agency.
STRONG EARTHQUAKE
197 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 197 km NW of Port-Olry, Vanuatu on 20 Oct 2026, 04:20 UTC. The hypocentre was 16 km below the surface — shallow by seismological convention. No felt reports have been received so far. The reporting agency flagged a tsunami threat for this event; follow official warnings rather than this page. The figures have been revised 4 times since the first report. 13 other earthquakes above our reporting threshold have been recorded within 250 km in the past 30 days.
- Depth
- 16 km
- Latitude
- 13.99°S
- Time
- 04:20 UTC
- Magnitude
- M6.3
shallow
165.59°E longitude
20 Oct 2026
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EPICENTRE
MAGNITUDE 6.3
Can be destructive in populated areas up to about 160 km across.
The scale is logarithmic: this released about 89 times the energy of a magnitude 5.0, roughly the energy of 43 thousand tonnes of TNT.
16 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.
NEARBY IN THE PAST 30 DAYS
13 earthquakes above our reporting threshold within 250 km of this one, the largest a magnitude 6.6.
OTHER RECENT EARTHQUAKES
20 Oct 2026, 04:20 UTC · 10 km deep
20 Oct 2026, 02:54 UTC · 129.4 km deep
20 Oct 2026, 00:56 UTC · 10 km deep
20 Oct 2026, 00:38 UTC · 10 km deep