Tonga earthquakes

M4.9 earthquake 85 km SSW of Hihifo, Tonga

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 85 km SSW of Hihifo, Tonga on Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 11:46 PM GMT-12 (11:46 UTC), 110 km (68 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M5.0 146 km S of Hihifo, Tonga. This one was a foreshock.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 4.9 (mb, body-wave), light
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 11:46 PM GMT-12
UTC: 2016-10-25 11:46:10 UTC
Depth: 109.5 km (68.0 mi), intermediate-depth
Epicenter: 16.684° S, 174.051° W
Region: Tonga
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
4.9	mb, body-wave	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.035 · 255 stations
5.08	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Location uncertainty: About 8.0 km horizontally, 4.7 km in depth
Magnitude uncertainty: ±0.04
Depth from: From location
Station coverage gap: 42°
Stations used: 314

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 1.9 and up: 18 in the 60 days after this one and 4 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Tonga earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us20007glg (also filed as iscgem609618255). Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 8:11 AM UTC.