Reviewed by USGS21d ago
M4.4 earthquake off the coast of Central America
Saturday, September 5, 2026, 05:16:35 UTC · 3.451°N, 83.083°W
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Central America on Saturday, September 5, 2026, 05:16:35 UTC, at a depth of 10.0 km (shallow).
- Magnitude
- 4.4
- Light · mb
- Depth
- 10 km
- Shallow
- Felt reports
- 0
- Did You Feel It?
- Est. shaking
- —
- No ShakeMap
- PAGER alert
- None
- Not issued
- Tsunami
- No flag
- USGS feed
Outlined circle: this earthquake
In context
How big was it, and why here?
Energy released
60 tons of TNT
That is about 1/251 of the Hiroshima bomb. A magnitude 5.0 releases about 8 times more energy.
Tectonic setting
25 km
from the nearest mapped plate boundary, between the Cocos and Nazca 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.
Did You Feel It?
Where it was felt
No “Did You Feel It?” reports have been published for this event yet. If you felt it, you can add your report on the USGS website.
I felt it — report to USGS ↗USGS PAGER estimate
Who was exposed to shaking
USGS publishes PAGER impact estimates for significant earthquakes, usually within an hour. No PAGER estimate is available for this event.
After the main event
Aftershocks within 50 km
USGS has not published any M2.5+ earthquake within 50 km since this event.
Regional history
Past M5+ earthquakes within 300 km
USGS lists 201 M5.0+ earthquakes within 300 km before this one (catalog from 1900; older records are less complete). The strongest:
- 6.7260 km SSW of Arenas, PanamaAugust 20, 1927 · 240 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.5256 km S of Punta de Burica, PanamaMay 5, 2005 · 253 km N of this epicenter
- 6.5236 km S of Punta de Burica, PanamaJanuary 7, 2015 · 277 km N of this epicenter
- 6.4off the coast of Central AmericaMay 6, 1939 · 223 km NW of this epicenter
- 6.4261 km S of Burica, PanamaApril 27, 1954 · 254 km N of this epicenter
- 6.3290 km SSW of Arenas, PanamaMarch 5, 1943 · 210 km NE of this epicenter
- 6.3278 km SW of Arenas, PanamaJune 4, 2012 · 236 km N of this epicenter
- 6.3245 km S of Punta de Burica, PanamaMarch 31, 1999 · 269 km N of this epicenter