Guatemala earthquakes

M5.0 earthquake 8 km NW of La Gomera, Guatemala

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck 8 km NW of La Gomera, Guatemala on Tue, Dec 29, 2015, 9:25 PM CST (03:25 UTC), 81 km (50 mi) below the surface.

La Gomera forecast More in Guatemala

Map

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

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.0 (Mwr, regional moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Tue, Dec 29, 2015, 9:25 PM CST
UTC: 2015-12-30 03:25:34 UTC
Depth: 81.0 km (50.4 mi), intermediate-depth
Epicenter: 14.137° N, 91.110° W
Region: Guatemala
Felt reports: 29
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	Mwr, regional moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.069 · 20 stations
5.0	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1

What happened

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

Felt (III) at Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala City and Mixco. Also felt at Chinautla, Ciudad Vieja, Palin, Parramos, Quetzaltenango, San Pablo La Laguna, San Pedro La Laguna, San Raymundo, Santa Catarina Pinula and Tucuru. Felt (I) at Ahuachapan, El Salvador.

From the USGS event page for us10004acp. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Did you feel it?

29 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was IV, light shaking.

Fault motion and ground failure

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

Faulting: Normal
Moment magnitude: 5.0 Mwr
Nodal plane 1: Strike 280°, dip 74°, rake -98°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 127°, dip 18°, rake -65°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Location uncertainty: About 7.0 km horizontally, 1.7 km in depth
Magnitude uncertainty: ±0.07
Depth from: From location
Station coverage gap: 131°
Stations used: 217

Nearest places

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

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.0 and up: 10 in the 60 days after this one and 6 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Guatemala earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us10004acp (also filed as gcmt20151230032534, iscgem608130499). Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC.