80 km W of Panguna, Papua New Guinea

4 hours ago

USGS

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 80 km W of Panguna, Papua New Guinea on 11 Nov 2026, 17:38 UTC. The hypocentre was 58.8 km below the surface — shallow by seismological convention. No felt reports have been received so far. The figures have been revised 1 time since the first report. 1 other earthquake above our reporting threshold has been recorded within 250 km in the past 30 days.

Depth: 58.8 km
Latitude: 6.33°S
Time: 17:38 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.

58.8 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.