⚠️ This earthquake carries a tsunami threat. Follow official guidance from your national agency.

7.2MAG

MAJOR EARTHQUAKE

200 km W of Sola, Vanuatu

2 hours ago

USGSAUTOMATICTSUNAMI THREAT

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck 200 km W of Sola, Vanuatu on 24 Oct 2026, 02:31 UTC. The hypocentre was 10 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. This is an automatic solution that an analyst has not yet reviewed, so the magnitude and depth above may still change. 28 other earthquakes above our reporting threshold have been recorded within 250 km in the past 30 days.

Depth: 10 km
Latitude: 13.80°S
Time: 02:31 UTC
Magnitude: M7.2

EPICENTRE

View the official report↗

MAGNITUDE 7.2

Can cause serious damage over large areas.

The scale is logarithmic: this released about 63 times the energy of a magnitude 6.0, roughly the energy of 951 thousand tonnes of TNT.

10 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.