Chile earthquakes

M5.0 earthquake 156 km NNE of Calama, Chile

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck 156 km NNE of Calama, Chile on Sat, May 1, 2010, 5:01 PM GMT-4 (21:01 UTC), 109 km (68 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M5.3 93 km NE of Calama, Chile. This one was a foreshock.

Pozo Almonte forecast More in Chile

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.0 (Mwc, centroid moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Sat, May 1, 2010, 5:01 PM GMT-4
UTC: 2010-05-01 21:01:34 UTC
Depth: 108.7 km (67.5 mi), intermediate-depth
Epicenter: 21.080° S, 68.594° W
Region: Chile
Felt reports: 4
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
5.0	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
4.98	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.0	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Felt (II) at Iquique. Also felt at Arica.

From the USGS event page for usp000hc64. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Did you feel it?

4 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was II, weak shaking.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Oblique normal
Nodal plane 1: Strike 227°, dip 37°, rake -38°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 349°, dip 69°, rake -121°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Station coverage gap: 52°
Stations used: 172

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.0 and up: 3 in the 60 days after this one and 5 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Chile earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000hc64 (also filed as us2010vtb1, gcmtc201005012101a, gcmt20100501210134, iscgem14629899). Read Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 2:10 AM UTC.