Reported by EMSC12d ago
M2.6 earthquake in South Africa
Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 18:29:16 UTC · 22.929°S, 29.998°E
A magnitude 2.6 earthquake struck in South Africa on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 18:29:16 UTC, at a depth of 10.0 km (shallow).
- Magnitude
- 2.6
- Minor · m
- Depth
- 10 km
- Shallow
- Reported by
- EMSC
- Agency SASN
- Nearest tracker
- 427 km
- from Maputo
Outlined circle: this earthquake
In context
How big was it, and why here?
Energy released
120 kg of TNT
That is about 1/125,702 of the Hiroshima bomb. A magnitude 5.0 releases about 3,981 times more energy.
Tectonic setting
68 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Somali and African plates. Earthquakes cluster along boundaries like this one, where plates collide, pull apart or slide past each other.
Depth: shallow
10 km
Shallow earthquakes (under 70 km) produce the strongest surface shaking for their size, so they are the ones most likely to cause damage near the epicenter.
After the main event
Aftershocks within 50 km
USGS and EMSC have not published any M2.5+ earthquake within 50 km since this event.
Regional history
Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km
USGS lists 2 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest: